CAA says Entebbe expansion works at 79%, minister Katumba Wamala pleased with progress

Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) has said that the current modification and expansion works of the Entebbe International Airport works now stand at 79%.

This was revealed during the inspection of the development of the aeronautical infrastructure by the top leadership team of the ministry of works and transport led by minister Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala, state minister for transport Joy Kabatsi and other officials.

Wamala after the tour of the entire project commended the works and pledged full support from the ministry of works that will see the project completed on time.

"I have checked on the ongoing projects and modifications of the airport in order to be compliant with the modern travel protocols." Katumba said in a statement

“I have endorsed the new improvements by Civil Aviation Authority and I promise to work closely with the ministry of finance to get the funds for remaining work," he added.

The authority revealed that there has been a delay in works for sites that were projected to end in 2021 citing the impact of the Covid-19 that restricted movement for workers and material as well as decline in incomes from passenger traffic.

"To demonstrate the Covid-19 impact in terms of passenger traffic statistics, Entebbe Airport handled 1,980,000 international passengers in 2019 compared to 565,541 passengers in 2020. Even after resumption of passenger operations, the situation is yet to stabilize," noted justice Dr. Stephen Kavuma, Chairman board of directors UCAA.

He added that the airport handled only 24,095 arrivals. 29,409 departures and 4,279 transit passengers in 2021 which is an average of 1,868 passengers per day in comparison to an average of 5,400 passengers per day in 2019.

Mr. Vianney Luggya, the Spokesperson of Civil Aviation Authority said tremendous work has been done on the developments and expansion of the airport.

"The works to completion now stand at 79.2%, The sub components in the project include the new cargo center which will have capacity to handle 100,000 metric tonnes of cargo. The two runways (17.35 and 12.30), runway 17/35 is fully complete and operational, runway 12/30 works towards completion stand at 98%." Luggya states.

He also noted that, "Airport parking Apron 1 is at 85%, Apron 2 is fully complete. The new cargo center is yet to be started. A 23 million litres state of the art fuel aviation and hydrant system is a work in progress under TriStar."

In terms of funding for the project, Luggya notes that they received an external fund to a tune of USD. 200m borrowed from Exim bank of China coupled with an additional internal funding.