East African Civil Aviation Academy Decries Underfunding

Inadequate funding is hindering the operations of The East African Civil Aviation Academy in Soroti. 

This was revealed by Lt Col Ronald Turyamubona, the Director of the Academy on Thursday while appearing before the Parliament’s committee on physical infrastructure to present their budget performance for the financial year 2019/2020 and half year 2020/2021.

Turyamubona told the committee that the school is continuing to struggle because of under funding. He added that currently six of the Aircrafts are grounded due to lack of maintenance.

He says that sometimes the Aircrafts get grounded due to lack of a certificate of airworthiness which is supposed to be renewed every year.  According to Turyamubona, the school has two twin engines and seven single engines.         

According to Turyamubona, the grounded 9 Baron G-58 Aircraft requires between 292 million shillings and 329 million shillings for it to fly again. The aircraft was involved in an accident in 2018.

Turyamubona says that they need 24 Billion Shillings to operate effectively, but the school currently receives 9.5 Billion Shillings from the government.

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He says funding for the school should be improved to meet the high training demands.

James Waluswaka, the Bunyole West MP says it is unfortunate that the Aircraft are grounded, and yet Government is trying to revive the aviation industry.

Soroti Flying School had 75 students before the covid-19 lockdown, but currently, there are 60 students. 

The school was established 50 years ago by the East African Community. In 2019 Cabinet resolved to take back the institution after a move to return it to the East African community stalled.