Entebbe Airport passenger traffic recovers by 87% after Covid

Entebbe International Airport recorded 149,375 passengers in January 2023 (72,934 arriving and 76,441 departing passengers), an average of 4,818 per day, the authorities have announced.

According to Vianney Luggya, the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) spokesman, the number was an increase from a total of 110,547 passengers in the same period of January 2022.

In December 2022, Luggya said, the airport recorded 156,790 passengers compared to 123,576 in the same period of Dec 2021.

“The total number of arriving and departing passengers was 1,574,405 in 2022, compared to 941,688 in 2021, 565,541 in 2020 & 1,802,107 in 2019.The post COVID19 recovery is at 87%,” he said on Monday.

In relation to cargo, Mr Luggya said the airport recorded 5,014 metric tonnes (imports 1,752 and exports 3,262) in January 2023.

A total of 61,066 tonnes in 2022, 64,172 tonnes in 2021, 59,720 tonnes in 2020 and 64,701 tonnes in 2019. There are more exports than imports, he said.

Mr. Fred Bamwesigye, the Director General of the UCAA, told reporters last year that the expansion of Entebbe Airport will lead to an increase of passenger traffic to 3.5 million annually from the current 1.8 million.

“We are looking at having up to 3.5 million using the airport by next year,” he said, Bamwesigye noting that, the on-going airport expansion works include erection of a new cargo centre with storage capacity of 100,000 tonnes, way higher than 59,000 tonnes of the former centre, an apron, an upgrade on the runway 12/30 among others.

Expansion on the airport according to Robert Ssebalamu, a tourism operator in Entebbe municipality will see more tourists flying into the country which would boost the tourism industry further.