ENHAS, local firms take on Air Force One

Jul 13, 2003

THE Entebbe Handling Services Limited (ENHAS) has successfully handled the Airforce One carrying President George Walker Bush, wife, Laura and US Government officials last Friday at Entebbe International Airport

By Alfred Wasike

THE Entebbe Handling Services Limited (ENHAS) has successfully handled the Airforce One carrying President George Walker Bush, wife, Laura and US Government officials last Friday at Entebbe International Airport.

The seven-year old handling group provided motorised steps to the specially customised Boeing 747, flashed its toilets and other sophisticated services amid very tight security by US and Uganda. ENHAS, which has invested in $7m equipment, also handled Airforce One that flew in President Bill Clinton in March 1998.

An excited Tytens Georges, the ENHAS chief executive officer, told The New Vision, “We spent a lot of time preparing for this day. We could not take chances. We put in a lot of brand new equipment. We met with President Bush’s advance team and discussed all the details.”

Airforce One was refueled by Total Uganda, Uganda Inflight Services provided food and beverages while the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) oversaw the whole operation.

A confident CAA managing director, Ambrose Akandonda told The new Vision, “Everything was under control.”

Georges said, “For example we prepared the air starter. This equipment is necessary in the event that the aircraft may have problems starting on its own power. We also prepared the ground power unit that provides electricity. This is actually a generator. We stood by water trucks, toilet flashers, a push back for helping the aircraft to move to the end of the tarmac and other machines.”

“We were so prepared, we had four steps on stand by. Later after Airforce One had taken off, we helped the Americans load their vehicles and other equipment into several of their huge C-130 aircraft,” Georges added

“We have handle 200,000 departing passengers a year, that is 35,000 flights a year and 1,400,000 departing passengers in seven years”, an enthusiastic Georges added.

He further said they have handled 5,000 flights a year.

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