Passenger recovery through Entebbe International airport is defying projections and is up more than 70% of pre-pandemic numbers in 2019. In 2019 Entebbe airport registered 1.8 million passengers except for a few things like the restrictions due to Ebola and Dubai.
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Dubai recently tightened its grip on VISA issuance to Ugandans which has affected the traffic at Entebbe International Airport due to the reduced number of travelers. Dubai is one of the most popular destinations for Ugandans. The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) says that these restrictions however minimal and have caused only a 1% reduction in passenger numbers but overall it is a very, very big improvement. The average daily passanger traffic shows that the traffic hit its peak at 5,034 passages in August and reduced down to 4,802 passengers in September during the Dubai ban and the Ebola pandemic as shown below.
The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority says that these figures surpass global projections which indicated that most airports shall come back to normal after 2025. But in 2022 UCAA is already seeing the numbers going back to pre-pandemic levels between 72% and 75%.
Interestingly, the cargo figures which stayed up during the covid-19 lockdown, have also risen beyond expectations, signaling a near-total recovery on the whole at least for Entebbe airport. Uganda Civil Aviation Authority says they are currently operating at 109% more than what had been predicted. So, it means now that they expand the facilities to say another 100,000 metric tons capacity to make it 200,000 metric tons. UCAA has indicated that the expansion and refurbishment of the airport is now at 80%.
