Entebbe airport expansion will spur growth


Connectivity is critical for sustaining Uganda’s economic growth. There is no doubt the country has shortages on infrastructure, in particular airports and ports around strategic areas around Lake Victoria. The recent announcement by Uganda Civil Aviation Authority that plans are afoot to build new facilities at Entebbe International Airport is welcome news to both tourists and business community. One can only wish that the slow progress that has characterized such projects would be missing. In this light, the Civil Aviation’s announcement that other airports will start commercial operations in coming years is greatly welcome. There is need for CAA to refurbish the outdated and overrun airports across the country to drive the aviation industry to greater heights and that would also help in revival plans of Uganda Airlines. Last year, some 1.23 million passengers used the airport, though its capacity is expected to handle up to 3 million passengers and, according to CAA, the plans for future expansions are already underway.
Entebbe is just one of several cities airports that will see changes to its air infrastructure according to country’s vision 2040. Entebbe International Airport will also have a brand spanking new facility soon, which can handle double the number of passengers a year. Other busy hubs, such as Gulu Airport in northern Uganda are to be expanded in coming years. All these developments mean that in the next five years, Uganda’s air hubs will be improved, further opening up the country. Uganda’s aviation industry is growing by leaps and bounds. Privately owned domestic carrier Air Uganda has been buying newer, larger aircraft to accommodate the growing number of passengers. The opening of Entebbe International Airport would be a major milestone and can help Uganda become a regional commercial hub. The government plans to accelerate more such facilities in other regions of the country can only give more hope to millions of Ugandans that future is brighter than they expect.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2013: The year of mobile photography

Today is the 366th day of 2012 and as we wind up, millions of pictures will be taken and shared on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter by people across the world. Young and old alike will take more photographs than any new year celebration before and I bet big that traditional camera makers will miss out on a bigger share of the love. The latest research has found smartphone as one of the two popular devices used for taking pictures together with traditional cameras and is considered to be a bigger motivator for amateur photographers irrespective of the age and gender. Some studies have been quoted as saying that eight in every ten smartphone users take at least one picture a week on their phone, while less than half who use a point-and-shoot camera take pictures at the same frequency.This year, analysts believe that majority of people take pictures with a smartphone with less than a third taking pictures with a digital single lens reflex while a quarter of i...
Read more

Telecoms in East Africa should look to data for mobile growth

Mobile network operators in East Africa should look to data traffic growth and increased data prices as a means of arresting voice revenue decline in one of the fastest growing mobile market in sub Saharan Africa. Over the last few months, a couple of operators have been sending pricing signals to customers to help manage this finite resource. Unlike two years ago, there is a clear movement towards data usage among users in the four member states of East African community namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda where customers are using less mobile voice and SMS services. The loss of SMS service business is fatal to mobile operators and is highly attributed to the rise of over the top apps such as WhatsApp and iMessage that have become a hit with mobile subscribers in the region. Such apps have provided rich communications over a data connection, allowing customers to forgo SMS use. Customers have an economic incentive to use over the top apps...
Read more

Diabetes rising among Africa’s young adults

A group of software developers in Africa are developing mobile health apps among them application that will help monitor diabetic patients. Their interest in diabetes monitoring apps came after Doctors in Africa warned several years back that diabetes is on the rise among young people in the continent, attributable largely to sedentary urban lifestyles and increasingly high levels of obesity. An estimated 29 percent in urban areas and 14 percent in rural areas suffers from the disease, most of them young adults, while 36 percent are at high risk of getting it, according to a study conducted last year. That figure is up from estimates of 2.4 percent in 1989 and 0.6 percent in 1979. The study also showed that Kinshasa, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Cairo and Dar Es Salaam had the highest prevalence of obesity in the continent, with 51 percent of the 1,000 men and women in the 22 -35 age range surveyed falling under that category. Doctors blame the high level of diabetes in the capital a...
Read more