An airport in Kampala in the offing

By Joel Ogwang

• An airport in the city will go a long way in boosting domestic air transport as well as tourism in the country

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has mooted plans to construct an international airport in Kampala to complement Entebbe International Airport.

David Mpango Kakuba, the CAA Uganda deputy managing director, said this would go a long way in boosting domestic
air transport as well as tourism in the country.

“It is important for Kampala City to have an airport, just like Wilson Airport in Nairobi city,” he told New Vision on the sidelines
of the just-concluded 9th Joint Transport Sector Review workshop at Hotel Africana recently.

“It doesn’t make sense for someone fl ying to Jinja from Kampala city to go through traffic jam to Entebbe airport
then board a plane. Even tourist would find it easy to connect to our various tourism destinations.”

Considering aviation is one of the world’s most expensive industries, Kakuba noted that starting an international
airport would cost at least $100m.

“Aviation is a very expensive venture, but a necessary one. We are a landlocked country and we have to look at alternative transport means outside of roads. But the plan for an airport in Kampala is at conceptualisation level. Once the Government is ready to compensate people, we can identify land at Namanve even tomorrow,” he said.

Kakuba says planning for the new airport in Kampala is still in its early stages. CAA is looking for at least 300 hectares of land for the project on which the airport will seat. The airport will have a 1.8 kilometres long runway.

The authority is still considering the location of the airport, with the Namanve area thought to be one of the options.

Under a 20-year Civil Aviation Master-plan, CAA plans to expand Entebbe International Airport by building a domestic terminal, airport terminal, aeroplanes maintenance hangers, a second parallel runway and taxi ways.

Preparation for the $300m expansion has kicked-off with the acquisition of 66 acres of land formerly owned by the
agriculture ministry.

Although Entebbe Airport requires 2,000 ha for expansion, its land at Kigungu adjacent to the runway has
been encroached on.