The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is set to reopen Entebbe International Airport to passenger flights on October 1 if President Museveni approves their plans.
In a September 8 letter, which Daily Monitor has seen, Mr Ayub Sooma, the director of Airports and Aviation Security, informed station managers of different airlines that plans for phase one of reopening had been concluded.
“Please find attached a tentative schedule for phase one of international passenger flights to Entebbe International Airport for three months effective October 1,” the letter reads in part.
It is addressed to the station managers for Uganda Airlines, Kenya Airways, Qatar Airways, Air Tanzania, Fly Dubai, Rwandair, KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines), Turkish Airlines, Emirates, Brussels Airlines and Tarco Aviation.
According to the schedule, if the airport is re-opened, the first plane to fly in will be Turkish Airways’ Boeing 737-900 at 3:55am making a stopover from Istanbul via the Rwandan Capital, Kigali.

Expected flight
Uganda Airlines flight number UR520 will also have two flights on the opening day destined for Nairobi and Mogadishu, respectively.
President Museveni ordered the closure of the airport to passenger flights on March 22 after Uganda confirmed its first case of the Covid-19 pandemic. The case was of a passenger who was travelling from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The airport and the other border points remained open for cargo planes and trucks (for road transport) in order to continue with import and export flows.
However, for the last two months, special arrangements have been made for flights bringing back Ugandans who were stranded abroad during the worldwide lockdown that affected most of the airports.
Non-Ugandans who want to return to their countries benefit from the same arrangement.
The CAA said with support from the United Nations, automatic sanitising booths have been installed in the terminals to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

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