Scheduled flights for arriving passengers on October 7th, 2020 Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s aviation industry is slowly picking up as countries open airspaces, according to airline operators and travel agents. They, however, say that the situation in Uganda is a reflection on the aviation industry globally.
Entebbe Airport used to handle more than 120 flights a day, generating revenue of about 20 billion Shillings a month, before the closure of borders in March. But for seven months, traffic at the airport was only limited to emergency and cargo flights as Uganda, as was the case for several other countries, across the globe, sought to tame the spread of coronavirus disease.
During the seven months’ lull, the revenue drastically reduced to one billion Shillings a month. But commercial passenger flights are now back, in a phased approach with 16 airlines now operating international flights to over ten destinations across the world. They include Uganda Airlines, Tarco Airlines, Rwandair, Kenya Airways, Qatar Airways and Emirates, among others.
In the first phase running from October to December 2020, all airlines, apart from Uganda Airlines are supposed to operate only one flight a day to avoid congestion at Entebbe Airport. Under this restricted arrangement, a total of 13,002 passengers were handled at Entebbe Airport in the first 12 days of its reopening on October 1, according to records by the Civil Aviation Authority.
Vianney Luggya, the spokesperson Uganda Civil Aviation Authority-UCAA says that the airport has mostly handled incoming passengers.
Before the closure, the airport handled a total of 1.9 million passengers in 2019, an average of 160,000 passengers a month. But now agents and airline officials are doubtful that the numbers could even hit 50,000 by end of this month.
Joel Ssentongo, the Passenger Service Manager at Tarco Airlines says that business is still slow because the airport is mainly handling essential travellers such as nationals and legal residents, as opposed to the business community. Many of those travelling out of the country is sick, going for work, studies or returning home, and usually, the 120-seater airline has only 50 passengers on board.
“Many people used to travel for business in China but they are now going to Dubai and Turkey while others who would be attending conferences, exhibitions and visiting family and friends are no longer travelling,” he added. Ssentongo says Tarco airlines is operating only one flight a week to Juba and Khartoum because […]