Uganda expects to make the final decision on whether to re-establish a national carrier before year-end.

This comes after it becomes apparent that efforts to get Guangzhou-based China Southern, one of the three state-owned airlines in China, to fly to Entebbe were unlikely to yield a positive outcome in the near future.

Tom Wasswa, marketing and commercial services manager at the CAA, said the two sides have engaged twice in recent times — in Guangzhou in late August and on the sidelines of the World Routes Conference in Chicago last month.

According to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, a White Paper on a national carrier is being forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration with a decision expected in December. Sources say the paper, which was drafted by the Ministry of Works, proposes three structural models that all involve state participation in the majority but keep the government out of direct management of the airline.

“We are looking at a number of options but avoiding anything that suggests that the government is going to run the airline,” said a source close to the process.

The options are: A joint venture, where the government partners with an international airline; wooing Ethiopian Airlines to participate in setting up an airline similar to its joint venture with Air Malawi and Togo-based ASKY; or the RwandAir model where the government will incubate the national carrier up to a point where it becomes attractive to private investors.

While the government will provide the seed capital to bankroll any of the options, Ugandan investors will also be invited to participate.

This and the pledge to keep the government’s role in the airline at arm’s length are intended to overcome stiff opposition that has been expressed by a section of the public to a state-run venture.

A key consideration for any partnership is the need for Uganda to retain majority control of the airline, which is necessary for the carrier to be recognised by ICAO as a national carrier.

Talks for state participation in Air Uganda collapsed after the state was offered a token five per cent shareholding.

The push for a national carrier, or at least a Uganda-based airline, has gained fresh urgency after it emerged that the hitherto quasi-national carrier Air Uganda has opted to wind up following a three-month grounding by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

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The business and tourism communities also argue that a national carrier would moderate a market currently dominated by exorbitant fares and also open connections to strategic destinations, especially in the Far East.