Uganda Civil Aviation Authority has reported that the on-going works to upgrade and expand Entebbe International Airport with a new 20,000 square meters terminal building which connects to the existing terminal building now stands at 90% level of completion.
On completion of the new terminal building, whose works are expected to be completed in 2024, the terminal capacity will be enhanced from the previous maximum capacity of 2 million passengers a year to at least 3.5 million passengers, UCAA, Director General ,Mr. Fred Bamwesigye has revealed .
While addressing a press conference in Entebbe , Bamwesigye said that the enhanced capacity at Entebbe international Airport was to address the growing traffic.
“For instance, in March, 2024, Entebbe International Airport handled 80,719 arriving and 91,271 departing passengers, a total of 171,990 international passengers, an average of 5,548 passengers per day,” he stated .
“This comes on the heels of increased traffic, averaging over 6,000 passengers per month in the previous three months; specifically, 6,418 passengers per day were handled in December 2023, 6,329 per day in January 2024 and 6,116 passengers per day in February 2024. 2023 recorded a total of 1.93 million passengers in comparison to the pre-COVID 19 pandemic figure of 1.8 million passengers in 2019. The new facilities and on-going projects are meant to address the growing traffic,Bamwesigye added.
The Director General explained that the on-going construction of the new terminal building has a component for interconnection of the drainage system to accommodate the new developments, and all these pending works are scheduled for completion this year.
“The public is urged to bear with the temporary inconvenience as mitigation measures and all the projects are being finalized for a better passenger experience.
Members of the public are also requested to be more patriotic and not pride in massively sharing images of that nature, which negatively impacts tourism ,” he added.
The other pending works include expansion of Apron 1, which is at 95% level of completion.
Other earlier completed works under the same project, include resurfacing of runways 17/35 and 12/30 plus their associated taxiways, construction of a new 100,000 tones capacity cargo center and resurfacing of Aprons 2 and 4.
In addition ,the modified terminal building and opened it to the public on January 10, 2024. The facility ably facilitated delegates to the NAM/G77+ China Summit and continues to facilitate arriving and departing passengers in a bigger and more ambient environment.
Earlier on, the car parking was resurfaced and completed in March 2023.
