Passengers on a Uganda Airlines flight from Entebbe to Dubai have been arrested for turning the trip into a bazaar on Friday, charged with ‘common nuisance.’ Two individuals, who normally hawk cell phone accessories, brought grasshoppers on board to sell to other passengers to eat (“Nsenene”). They were up in the aisles of the Airbus A330, and apparently found some willing buyers.
The grasshoppers were allowed onto the aircraft because they were fried. However the airline has said if the two passengers Mubiru Paul and Kiggundu Habib do it again they’ll be banned from the state-owned carrier. And the airline itself has now gotten the idea to offer the grasshoppers as part of inflight meals themselves. Competition works.
General Katumba Wamala, Uganda’s Minister of Works and Transport – which is a 50% owner of Uganda Airlines (the Ministry of Finance owns the other 50%) – has ordered that the crew of the aircraft that allowed the duty free sales to take place be punished.
For the airline’s part, it has announced that the passengers aren’t permitted to sell goods during the boarding process of their aircraft. However “some of our customers enjoy Nsenene.” Clearly the enterprising passengers selling the grasshoppers were meeting an unmet need! So Uganda Airlines is “considering addng Nsenene..to our menu for regional and international flights on request.”
— Uganda Airlines (@UG_Airlines) November 27, 2021
(HT: Live and Let’s Fly)
Grasshoppers? Probably better tasting than some of the US airline grub I’ve eaten….
Still a better meal than that crap sandwich AA offers in First class.
DUI Dougie, get on the grasshopper train and start giving your pax better meals!!!
Nasty! This behavior gives BIPOC a bad name.
With the departure of inflight magazines, these comedic episodes of in flight insanity should be put into a hard copy form for reading material:-) As for the bugs, Perhaps a big hit due to the lack of protein without the nuts (salted variety) on board. And what was that…not allowed to sell during boarding? So okay in flight? Or at least a discreet transaction with seat mates? ANd then perhaps just a friendly sharing by passing through the seat backs? Personally, who knows where those grasshoppers and sellers have been or if they washed their hands….I’ll bring my own snacks thanks…..
There’s a similar unmet need on U.S. carriers – booze!
Food is cultural. If you grow up eating fried grasshoppers or like us Mexicans cows head (slow-cooked until the meat falls off with a fork)
then it’s normal. The Chinese eat any meat on 4 legs-and I mean anything!
@jorge you’re talking about peasant food. Get a real job other than lawn equipment operator, then you can afford the prime cuts.
LOL, I can see why you have a fat lip
Mr. fat lip! Peasant food is tasty!
Gary,
How about the more interesting news coming out of Entebbee – like the Chinese taking over the airport after defaulting on a loan?
-m
At Michael, I to am surprised Gary hasn’t covered “the debt raid on Entebbee” yet. Maybe Gary is waiting on comment from the Chinese government? I know Gary is too ethical to be worried about reprisals from the big red machine. What is their slogan One road, one belt? Guess the belt can be used many ways…..
Maybe folks missed that I wrote about Entebbe airport debt hours earlier than folks are wondering why I didn’t cover it. Weird flex.
From the future VFTW highlights book:
“ The grasshoppers were allowed onto the aircraft because they were fried.”
Gary,
Maybe you can point me to the link about the news regarding Entebbe airport – I must have missed this (even when going back again over the articles) in the midst of the Spirit fights and other usual people behaving badly nonsense…….
-m
@ Woke: Grasshoppers are a delicacy in many parts of the world. Nutritious. No greenhouse gases. Ground cricket coming to foods near you soon. Does not reflect poorly at all. They also showed entrepreneurial zeal.