Entebbe Airport registers growth in passenger numbers

Passengers arrive at Entebbe International Airport recently. FILE PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • Mr Vianney Luggya the Manager Public affairs CAA said the exercise is a mandatory requirement by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for all international Airports.

ENTEBBE: The number of passenger and aircraft traffic flowing through Entebbe International Airport has grown by a 10.2 percent in the last two years, according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) managers.

“We have recorded 1,840,264 passengers which indicates an additional 190,264 passengers more than 1.65 million passenger’s registered in 2017,” CAA deputy managing director, Mr Fred Bamwesigye said.
The growth could partly be attributed to the increased number of Ugandans travelling for external employment to the Middle East and improved tourism promotion of Uganda’s tourist attractions, according to Mr Bamwesigye.

“Similarly, domestic passenger traffic recorded a 41.9 percent growth from 18,824 in 2017 to 26,711 in 2018. Commercial aircraft movements registered a 10 percent growth with a rise from 29,324 in 2017 to 32,386 movements in 2018,” Mr Bamwesigye told journalists at the airport after concluding emergency exercise test in case of passenger aircraft hijack and simulation of an aircraft crash.

“We are sure our readiness to handle the two is now on course. If such a situation happened, the whole world would focus on Entebbe airport; the point would not be how it happened but how we managed the hostage and aircraft crash.”
Mr Bamwesigye said this was the first time CAA was conducting an aircraft hijack and hostage taking situation simulation since the last emergency exercise held in 2016.
“The ability so successfully carry out the simulations shows we are able to save people’s lives both in circumstances of a hijack and crash,” he added.

Some of the volunteers and stakeholders involved in the emergency exercise at Entebbe International Airport on February 28, 2019. COURTESY PHOTO

Mr Vianney Luggya the Manager Public affairs CAA said the exercise is a mandatory requirement by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for all international Airports.
In a statement Mr Luggya said the exercise kicked off at 8am involving a hijack simulation of speed Air (Pseudo name) flight TA042 with 82 people on board. The exercise assumed that the hijacked aircraft was flying over Uganda’s airspace and the pilot was forced to land at Entebbe International airport.
After a protracted “hostage negotiation and rescue mission” was accomplished, the aircraft was cleared to proceed to its initial destination, but “crashed” on takeoff on runway 12/30 with 78 passengers and crew on board.

It was presumed that some people lost their lives and a number of survivors were critically injured, which sparked off an emergency situation involving airport fire fighters and other rescue agencies that were called in to save their lives
The CAA firefighting and rescue services personnel put out the ensuing fire as medics from various hospitals were summoned and they promptly responded.
Several ambulances and medical staff swarmed the crash scene and “rescued” the victims. The critically injured were rushed to hospitals in Entebbe and Kampala.