Entebbe sustains lift during January 2024

February 20, 2024 in Business, Travel & Tourism by Editor

Entebbe international Airport maintained altitude, posting a 31pc surge in passenger traffic during January relative to the comparable period for January 2023. A total of 196,211 international passengers passed through the facility during the month, indicating sustained lift that mirrored the historical peak of198,981 passengers that used the airport in December 2023.

January’s numbers represented a daily average of 6329 – marginally lower than December 2023s 6,418- but 31.48pc ahead of the daily average for January 2023.

Vianney Luggya Mpungu, the manager for public affairs at the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority, attributed January’s robust performance to the twin Non-Aligned Movement NAM and G-77 plus China summits that Uganda hosted during the month. The two events added 1918 visitors.

“The rise in January 2024 passenger traffic is partly attributed to Uganda’s hosting of the NAM and G77 Summits in January 2024,” Luggya said in remarks to the press.

Arrivals outpaced departures with 99,216 inbound and 96995 outbound during the reference period.

Cargo performance remained virtually unchanged from a year ago with 5,183 tons registered during January 2024 against 5014 tons in January 2023. Exports dominated with 364 tons against imports of 1579 tons.

Overall, January’s performance represents a continuation of the trend from 2023 which closed with 1,932,000 international passengers. That marked Entebbe Internationals full recovery from the disruptions caused by Covid-19 shutdowns that intensified between March 2020 and December 2021.

Entebbe is currently connected to 32 airports in 19 countries. As of this week, 315 departures are scheduled. At 61 flights, Entebbe-Nairobi remains the busiest route accounting for 19.3pc of all departures over the seven days to February 25.