1000 passengers use Entebbe Airport daily after resumption of flights

The international aviation industry continues to recover at a snail pace after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In Uganda, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) registers about 1,200 passengers every day since the resumption of passenger flights.

According to Eng. Ayub Sooma, the director for airports and aviation security, the first three days since Entebbe airport was reopened for passenger flights on October 1, saw the registration of a high number of passengers, especially those coming into the country.

“However, the number has since reduced, even though Uganda is still among the airports in the world that have registered quite a high number of travelers since passenger flights resumed,” noted Eng Sooma.

He said Entebbe International Airport used to receive about 5,400 passengers daily, before the Covid-19 outbreak which was followed by a partial lock-down of the aviation industry.

He made the remarks while receiving a consignment of masks and other Covid-19 safety equipment that were donated by the Korean International Corporation Agency (KOICA) at the Entebbe airport.

“The equipment will go a long way in ensuring the safety of passengers and front-line airport staff,” stated Eng. Sooma adding that KOICA partnered with the CAA in 2018 to modernise aeronautical infrastructure in the country.

There is an on-going automation of systems at Entebbe airport as part of the US$9.5m grant from the Korean government. A terminal operations control centre and training facility have been erected to deliver a computerised maintenance management system and air traffic message handling system among others.

Meanwhile, Vianney Luggya the CAA Public Affairs manager noted that on the first day (October 1), 1,362 passengers were recorded, out of whom, 761 were arriving whereas 601 were departing.

“On day two, we recorded 1,483 passengers, 848 of whom were arriving and 635 were departing,” Luggya said.

According to Luggya, before the Covid-19 outbreak, between 100-120 flights were being registered at Entebbe airport every day. When passenger operations were suspended, flight handlers started seeing between 7-14 flights every day, majorly with cargo.

Last year, Entebbe airport saw 1.98 million passengers go through its gates, a 7.6% increase from the 2018 figure of 1.84 million.

Based on these numbers, the airport authorities were ready to see at least two million travelers depart, arrive or go through the airport this year.

Passenger traffic in January this year was registered at 150,000 people, which number fell by 7.1% in February to about 140,000. In April, passenger traffic fell to only 987, which number kept reducing until the repatriation exercise began.

CAA officials are optimistic that the aviation industry is slowly getting back to its feet by adjusting to the new way of doing business with the observance of health Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Adopted from: New Vision Friday October 23, 2020