Entebbe International Airport
| Entebbe International Airport | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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IATA: EBB – ICAO: HUEN
 EBB
Placement on map is approximate |
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| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Civilian and Military | ||
| Operator | Civil Aviation Authority of Uganda | ||
| Serves | Entebbe, Kampala, Mukono | ||
| Location | Entebbe, Uganda | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 3,782 ft / 1,153 m | ||
| Coordinates | 00°02′40″N 32°26′33″E / 0.04444°N 32.4425°E | ||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| m | ft | ||
| 17/35 | 3,658 | 12,000 | Asphalt |
| 12/30 | 2,408 | 7,900 | Asphalt |
| Source: DAFIF[1][2] | |||
Entebbe International Airport (IATA: EBB, ICAO: HUEN) is the principal international airport of Uganda.
Contents |
[edit] Location
It is located near the town of Entebbe, on the shores of Lake Victoria, and about 46 km (29 mi) from the capital, Kampala. The main offices of the Civil Aviation Authority of Uganda are located at the airport.
[edit] History
The airport was first constructed in 1928/1929: the first aircraft to use the new airfield were RAF Fairey IIIs of the Cairo-Cape flight which landed on the 900 yards (820 m) grass runway on 17 February 1929. In January 1932 Imperial Airways began to use Entebbe on their Cape-to-Cairo mail services: at this stage, radio was installed. By 1935, the grass runway surfaces had been replaced by murram. In 1944-45 the main runway (12/30) was asphalted and extended to 1,600 yards (1,500 m). On 10 November 1951 the airport was formally re-opened after the facilities had been extended further: runway 12/30 was now 3,300 yards (3,000 m), in preparation for services by the de Havilland Comet. History was made on February 7, 1952, when Queen Elizabeth II took her maiden flight back to London via El Adem, Libya after being proclaimed Queen after the death of King George VI. [3]Finally, the existing control tower of the “old airport” was constructed in 1957/58.
The current passenger terminal building was constructed in the mid to late 1970s, together with runway 17/35: the old runway 12/30 was shortened to its current length. The Old Entebbe airport is now used by Uganda's military forces and was the scene of a hostage rescue operation by Israeli Sayeret Matkal, dubbed Operation Entebbe, in 1976, after an Arab-German hijacking of Air France Flight 139 out of Tel Aviv. The scene of that particular rescue was "the old airport", which was recently demolished except for its control tower. In late 2007, a domestic terminal was constructed at the site of the old airport, leaving the "new airport" to handle International flights exclusively.
[edit] Passenger traffic
Entebbe International Airport served 720,000 International passengers in 2007. (+10.7% vs. 2006).[4] The unofficial figure of arrivals in 2008 was estimated at 850,000 (+18.1% vs. 2007)[5] In 2009, the estimated arrivals were 930,000 (+9.4% vs 2008), while in 2010, they totaled 1 million (+7.5% vs. 2009).[6] The airport handled a total of 1,023,437 International arrivals in 2010, according to published data.[7] In 2011, International traffic is estimated to have increased to 1.5 million passsengers.[8]
[edit] Security arrangements
Entebbe Airport is a Cooperative Security Location of the United States military. [9]
[edit] Facilities
Passenger facilities include: Exchange office and Left-luggage office.[10] Entebbe Internatioonal Airport uses the jetway boarding bridge system.
[edit] Airlines and destinations
[edit] Scheduled passenger airlines
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| African Express Airways | Nairobi |
| Air Uganda | Bujumbura, Dar es Salaam, Juba, Kigali, Mombasa, Nairobi, Zanzibar |
| British Airways | London-Heathrow |
| Brussels Airlines | Brussels |
| Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation | Goma, Kinshasa |
| Eagle Air | Arua, Gulu, Moyo, Kidepo, Kitgum, Pakuba, Juba, Yei, Bunia |
| EgyptAir | Cairo |
| Emirates | Dubai, Addis Ababa |
| Ethiopian Airlines | Addis Ababa |
| Feeder Airlines | Juba[11] |
| Fly540 | Nairobi |
| Kenya Airways | Nairobi |
| KLM | Amsterdam |
| Precision Air | Kilimanjaro, Mwanza |
| Qatar Airways | Doha[12] |
| Royal Daisy Airlines | Juba |
| RwandAir | Kigali |
| South African Airways | Johannesburg |
| Turkish Airlines | Istanbul-Atatürk, Dar-Es-Salam |
| United Airlines Limited | Gulu, Arua, Kidepo |
[edit] Cargo airlines
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Avient Aviation | Liège |
| Emirates SkyCargo | Dubai, Kigali |
| Martinair [13] | Amsterdam |
| Uganda Air Cargo | Dubai, Johannesburg, Frankfurt, London |
| Chapman Freeborn[14] | Nairobi, Johannesburg,Ostend-Bruges, London, Amsterdam |
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Sunset over Entebbe
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Passenger terminal building
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Old Entebbe International Airport
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Entebbe old tower in 2008.
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A Lockheed L-100-20 Hercules in UN livery at Entebbe, preparing for yet another trip to Eastern Congo
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Air Uganda McDonnell Douglas MD-80 taxiing to runway 17
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Entebbe old tower
[edit] Accidents and incidents
- In 1976, an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was hijacked and taken to Entebbe, and Israeli commandoes rescued the hostages in Operation Entebbe.
- On 9 March 2009, Aerolift Ilyushin Il-76 S9-SAB crashed into Lake Victoria just after takeoff from Entebbe Airport, Uganda, killing all 11 people on board. Two of the engines had caught fire on take-off. The aircraft had been chartered by Dynacorp on behalf of AMISOM. The accident was investigated by Uganda's Ministry of Transport, which concluded that all four engines were time-expired and that Aerolift's claim that maintenance had been performed which extended their service life or that the work had been certified could not be substantiated.[15]
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Entebbe International Airport |
- Overview of Tourist Numbers Visiting Uganda 2007 To 2010 (Arrivals = Arriving Tourists + Arriving Nationals
- Website of The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority
- Qatar Airways Begins Daily Service Between Entebbe and Doha In November 2011
- As of November 2011, Nineteen (19) International Airlines Fly Into Entebbe
- Overview of Uganda's Aviation Sector 2011 - 2016
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Airport information for HUEN at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.Source: DAFIF.
- ^ Airport information for EBB at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective Oct. 2006).
- ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2097057/To-Her-Majesty-thoughts-prayers-Mummie-The-message-Queen-Mother-sent-daughter-flew-home-Queen.html
- ^ Juuko, Sylvia (2008-03-11). "Air travelers increase to 720,000". New Vision Online. http://newvision.co.ug/D/8/220/615970. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
- ^ Arrivals Estimated at 850,000 in 2007
- ^ Uganda Projects Increased Passenger Traffic In 2011
- ^ Airline Traffic Builds Up At Entebbe Airport
- ^ Growing Traffic At Entebbe Airportt
- ^ PAA facility "Presence, Not Permanence". Journal of the Air Force Association (Air Force Association). August 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20070930185714/http://www.afa.org/magazine/Aug2006/0806presence.asp. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
- ^ http://www.whichairline.com/airport/Entebbe-International-EBB#facilities
- ^ Feeder Airlines Starts Daily Service Between Juba and Entebbe
- ^ Quatar Airways Begins Daily Service Between Entebbe And Doha
- ^ Martinair Has Scheduled Cargo Service Between Amsterdam and Entebbe
- ^ Chapman Freeborn Has Charter and Scheduled Cargo Service Out of Entebbe
- ^ Hradecky, Simon. "Crash: Aerolift IL76 at Entebbe on Mar 9th 2009, impacted Lake Victoria after takeoff". The Aviation Herald. http://avherald.com/h?article=41635921/0002&opt=0. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
