By Sadique Bamwita
ENTEBBE
The Management of Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA), on August 20,2024, revealed that it has registered positive progress as phase one of the upgrade and expansion of Entebbe International Airport nears completion and now stands at 92%.
The Director General Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA), Fred Bamwesigye, says at the moment progress at the airport stands at 92% completion rate. He gave the update while addressing the press on the level of completion of phase one project regarding the upgrade and expansion of Entebbe International Airport.
Mr. Fred Bamwesigye revealed that in terms of traffic volume, Entebbe International Airport registered more passengers in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023. In terms of figures, in July 2024, the airport recorded a total of 182,494 international passengers, 92,379 arriving and 90, 115 departing passengers, an average of 5,886 passengers per day.
He added that cargo traffic significantly surged with a total of 32,794 metric tons recorded from January to June 2024 of which exports were 22,380 metric tons and 10,414 metric tons of imports compared to a total of 25,951 metric tons from January –June 2023.
Export increased by 18.9% while import cargo drastically by 46.2%. Last month in July 2024, the airport recorded cargo traffic of 4,123 metric tons of exports and 1,618 metric tons of imports, a total of 5,741 metric tons compared to 5,744 metric tons in the previous year.
Mr. Bamwesigye also revealed that from January –June 2024, aircraft movements were 15,223 compared to 14,575 in January –June 2023, saying in terms of percentage, aircraft movements increased by 4.4%. On the other hand, over flights were 12,359 in January –June 2024 as opposed to 11,203 in the previous year reflecting 10.3 % growth.
He further highlighted that in order to improve service provision at Entebbe International Airport; a new business class facility is under construction within the terminal building and would be completed by early next year.
‘We shall continue improving our airport facilities. We target to accommodate 3.5 million in our passenger terminal building by the year 2023 and by 2029 our target is 5 million passengers every year,” Bamwesigye expressed optimism.
The Director Airports and Aviation Security Eng. Al-Hajj Eng. Ayub Sooma, explained that the completion of the new passenger terminal building stands at 65 % while the new facility for business class will be completed early next year.
