The East African Civil Aviation Academy (EACAA), also known as the Soroti Flying School, is a Ugandan school that trains aircraft pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers.[3]
The school is based at Soroti Airport, (IATA: SRT, ICAO: HUSO), in the town of Soroti in the Eastern Region. It is approximately 228 kilometres (142 mi), by air, north-east of Entebbe International Airport, Uganda's largest civilian and military airport.[4] The coordinates of the airport are 1°43'15.0"N; 33°37'03.0"E (Latitude:1.720833; Longitude:33.617500).[5]
As of May 2018, the flying school was undergoing renovations and a certification process to become a center of aviation excellence in the region. New technical staff have been recruited, including (a) a Director (b) a Quality Manager (c) a Safety Manager (d) a Chief Engineering Instructor (d) Flying instructors (e) Ground instructors (f) Engineering instructors and (g) Flight Operations Instructors.[6] At that time the school had nine training aircraft. By May 2018, nine pilot-trainees, seven aircraft maintenance engineers and fourteen flight operations officers had completed training during the calendar year. Another fifteen pilots, fifteen flight operations engineers and five aircraft maintenance engineers were expected to graduate during the second half of 2018.[6]
When the first EAC collapsed in 1977, the Ugandan government took over the management and maintenance of the school.[8] In 2012, the government began the process of returning the school to the EAC.[9]
In late 2013, the Ugandan government entered into preliminary discussions with Integra, a private Danish aviation company, to improve and manage the school at international standards under a public-private-partnership (PPP) arrangement. Discussions at the Ugandan cabinet level have also been held about returning the school to the EAC.[10]
In 2014, the EAC Council of Ministers agreed to take it back.[9] On 3 July 2014, the presidents of Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda agreed in principle to re-instate the EACAA as one of the centres of excellence in the EAC.[11]
However, due to the failure of partner states to remit operational and development funds to the school, the Ugandan Cabinet, in March 2019, formally resolved to take over the ownership and management of the academy.[12]
It is expected that the academy will expand its training programs to include pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers from (a) UPDF Air Force (b) Uganda National Airlines Company (c) Uganda Police Air Wing (d) Ugandan Presidential Fleet (e) Commercial and General aviation. This would save Uganda millions of dollars in foreign exchange, currently spent on procuring this training outside the country.[12]
