Entebbe International Airport has recorded a steady increase in passenger traffic with August (last month) becoming the busiest month since the beginning of the year 2022.
According to the Public Relations officer Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) Vianney Luggya, Entebbe Airport handled 156,081 international passengers in August 2022 (73,899 arrivals & 82,182 departures), an average of 5,034 passengers per day compared to 4,892 in July, 4,508 in June, 4,018 in May, 4,078 in April, 3,670 in March, 3,615 in February and 3,566 per day in Jan 2022.
Luggya says the steady increase in passenger traffic is attributed to a number of factors, including widespread vaccination across the globe, which has led to relaxation of some previously stringent travel requirements. The fully vaccinated are exempted from PCR test requirements at Entebbe.
Luggya also says, confidence building measures by airports, including Entebbe and Airlines across the globe have reassured passengers going through Entebbe Airport.
The steady increase in passenger numbers is also attributed to mainly international arrivals with carriers like Saudia restoring their services to the East African nation.
However, this is still down compared to pre-pandemic levels whose passenger traffic was recorded as 1,728,783 in 2018/19 and 1,355,772 in 2019/20.
During the Financial Year 2021/22, a total of 1,244,604 travelers were facilitated through Uganda’s main airport compared to 580,238 in 2020/21 which was adversely affected by the health crisis.
In comparison, the 2021/22 passenger traffic performance with that of 2018/19 reflects a 71.9% recovery.
“Travel by pilgrims to & from Mecca was key in July, and so is travel for trade & employment in the Middle East. Conferences are back & tourism numbers are rising.” Luggya mentioned in a message posted on Twitter.