A report by the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority ( UCAA) has indicated a sharp increase in activity at Entebbe International Airport in a continued increase in both passenger and cargo traffic from last year.
The newly released figures for April 2024 show that the Aviation facility -Entebbe International Airport handled 82,247 arriving and 82,458 departing passengers, translating into a total of 164,705 international passengers in April.
On average, there were 5,313 passengers per day in that period.
The new figures signify a difference of 38,515 passengers more than was handled in April 2023, which recorded 126,190 international passengers.
When it came to cargo, the Airport facility recorded 1,768 metric tonnes of imports and 3,953 metric tonnes of exports making a total of 5,721 metric tonnes in April 2024.
UCAA has embarked on several ambitious projects aimed at enhancing the capability of the country’s sole international airport to match with other airports in similar stead.
A new terminal building under construction scheduled for completion later this year is further expected to enhance service delivery at the Airport.
The April figures, although a little below the previous month’s, show a continued improvement trend.
In March 2024, there were 80,719 arrivals and 91,271 departures, translating into an impressive total of 171,990 international passengers, and an average of 5,548 passengers per day.
This came on the heels of increased traffic, averaging over 6,000 passengers per month in the previous three months; specifically, 6,418 passengers per day 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 ongoing projects are meant to address the growing traffic according to Mr Luggya Vianne, the Authority’s Chief Publicist.
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