International commercial passenger flights return to Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport on October 1, 2020, ending at least five months of lockdown occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) in a September 8 letter to airlines' executives said that 13 flights, to and from the airport have been cleared for the first day, while 10 flights are confirmed for the second day. The letter is signed by Sooma Ayub, the UCAA director for Airports and Aviation security.

Airlines expected to resume flights in Uganda include the national carrier Uganda Airlines, Kenya Airways, Qatar Airways, Air Tanzania, Ethiopian Airlines, FlyDubai, RwandAir, KLM, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, Brussels Airlines, and Tarco Aviation.

The UCAA says the reopening will see the number of flights handled at the airport increasing gradually. The regulator also gave details of a revised weekly flight schedule for the first phase of the reopening which runs for three months.

The UCAA had asked for $40 million to prepare the airport for reopening.  

Entebbe International Airport was closed to passenger traffic since March except for evacuation and repatriation flights and cargo. The closure hit hard sectors like tourism which rely on aviation.

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