Ugandan new national airline would start flying from the Entebbe International Airport on October 1, the state-owned daily New Vision reported on Saturday.

An official was quoted as saying the Victoria International Airways (VIA) of which government held 25 percent shares would start with regional flights and eventually go to destinations like South Africa. The other major shareholder of the inaugural Uganda national airline was Andi Kunz from Switzerland.

"The airline will start off with one Boeing 737 carrying 100 passengers and will soon set up offices in Kampala. Its initial capital is one million U.S. dollars of which the government had paid 250,000 dollars," said the official.

He said they might increase working capital as business grew, but refused to speculate on the chances of the airline as other local carriers had been or were doing badly.

Meanwhile, the official confirmed that preparatory requirements had taken time to complete.

"After 14 months of preparatory work during which the provisional license was issued to VIA Uganda, consensus was reached with the Finance Ministry on the financing structure and the green light was given," he said.

Uganda once had a national airline which was named Uganda Airlines, but it collapsed because of bad management. All airlines flying to and from the Entebbe International Airport at present are foreign ones.

Source: Xinhua