As Uganda begins to re-open after a long lockdown and ease movement in spite of a still-raging pandemic, Entebbe International Airport has felt the harshest brunt of the travel restrictions.
Uganda has been under lockdown since March 18, and the country's only international airport and other border entry points were closed a week later, sending chills through the aviation, tourism and hospitality industries in particular.
For the first time in its history, Entebbe airport has been closed for more than two months, a move that has left the self-supporting Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) gasping for financial breath.
According to UCAA's Manager Public Affairs Vianney Mpungu Luggya, the authority has now asked government for Shs 150bn support to ready the airport for resumption of flights in accordance with standard operations procedures as required by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and health ministry.
Tentatively, the airport shall reopen on June 26, although by last week UCAA was readying the airport for Ugandans locked abroad that were allowed by government to return.
To allow social distancing, waiting areas including the Karibuni business class lounge, are being expanded or relocated, while doors and faucets shall be replaced with others with motion sensors.
"The money shall be used for those changes, but also to support our other operations, now that we are not earning," Eng Ayub Sooma, the director Airports and Aviation Security said during a tour of the airport last week.
Luggya said UCAA gets the bulk of its income from air traffic, cargo operations and non-aeronautical sources such as car parking and rental income from retailers and concessionaires at the airport. All these have ground to near-zero.
He said due to the lockdown, monthly aircraft movements reduced from 2,469 in April 2019 to 241 in April 2020, while cargo, which the presidential directive allowed to continue coming in, fell from 5,521 metric tons handled in April 2019, to 2,886 metric tons in April 2020.
"Entebbe used to experience between 90 and 120 flights per day, which have now reduced to between seven and 14 per day – mainly cargo and emergency flights," Luggya said. "It is not a sustainable situation for the aviation industry."
To compound the authority's misery, the increasing levels of Lake Victoria have also not spared them.
"The marine jetty landing has been reclaimed by the lake and we are replacing it," Luggya said.
Upgrade works
With little to no traffic, expansion and upgrade works have been moving faster and uninterrupted, but Luggya said most effort during this time has been placed on resurfacing the runway, which is ordinarily very busy.
Strengthening one of two runways and its taxiways had the least work done at the time of closure due to how busy it gets, and UCAA is using the unusual quiet to step up those works. During the tour last week, contractors were hard at work as the rest of the airport and tarmac remained quiet and deserted. Work on the other runway (12/30) is 99 per cent complete.
Luggya said 60 per cent of the US$ 200m expansion and upgrade work is done. UCAA has completed a new cargo centre, but a new passenger terminal is yet to get off the ground. The five-year Phase I of the project funded by a loan from Exim bank China, started in 2016.
Eng Sooma told The Observer that a second phase of upgrades will finally allow the airport to handle bigger aircraft such as the Airbus 380.
What passengers should expect
While regular flights into and out of Entebbe are expected to resume on June 26, ICAO estimates that ripple effects from Covid-19's impact on the global aviation industry shall be felt until March 31, 2021 "at the least."
Already some airlines, notably South African Airways have folded as Covid-19 delivered a devastating blow to their already-struggling operations. Luggya said UCAA is in touch with another South Africa-based air operator, SA AirLink (Pty) ltd, which intends to start flights in and out of Entebbe.
"While we shall definitely miss the direct flights that SAA was operating, we are optimistic that other new players, including Uganda Airlines will soon bridge that gap."
Passengers should, however, brace for a four-hour check-in time (excluding travel to the airport), since now in addition to other criteria, passengers will be subjected to Covid-19 tests before flight departure.
"In order to restore confidence to the destinations where our passengers will be going, on departure, one of the measures is the requirement for passengers to have a valid health certificate from the Ministry of Health or undergo a rapid test at the airport," Luggya said.
Eng Sooma said the rapid tests shall be purchased by the health ministry.
Passengers arriving will also find big health tents at the airport, where they shall be screened, observed and referred for isolation if necessary.
"It is only after completion of these [standard operating] procedures that passengers will proceed to the arrivals hall."
With more than 600 Coronavirus cases recorded in Uganda by Monday and popular destinations tallying thousands of incidents and deaths, clearly international travel as many knew it may never be the same again.
carol@observer.ug
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