The tourism private sector associations under their umbrella Uganda Tourism Association (UTA), has asked government to reopen Entebbe International Airport in order to facilitate different tourism activities currently at a standstill due to its continued closure as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
Uganda closed the airport on March 23 effectively prohibiting all passenger planes coming from outside Uganda from landing at it as one of the measures to prevent introduction of coronavirus into the country. Only cargo and UN planes were allowed to fly in and out of Uganda.
But in a meeting at Sheraton Hotel on Tuesday morning, UTA members highlighted the need for the immediate but cautious reopening of the country’s international airport in order to mitigate the negative impact already imposed on the sector.
Entebbe Airport is the main gateway into Uganda and commands more than 70% of passenger arrivals into the country, supports many businesses in the importation of raw materials, exporting of Uganda’s manufactured goods and agricultural products.
According to Pearl Hoareau Kakooza, the President of Uganda Tourism Association (UTA), government ought to establish a roadmap that explicitly elaborates the date for airport reopening in order to facilitate visitors plan their travels, exports and imports. She says Uganda can borrow a leaf from a number of country’s in the region including Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya which have since opened their airspace but following set Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
Tanzania reopened the airports on June 15, Rwanda in July and recently Kenya on August 1.
“The business community in those countries can ably plan their imports, exports and travels, even though the airports are partially open or yet to open. This is imposible on the side of Uganda since no clear roadmap to the opening of the airport has been laid out. Several employees whose livelihood depended on the operations of the airport are desperate and the continued closure may lead to further economic hardships,” Pearl Kakooza said.
“A call is made to the President of Uganda and his cabinet to consider the reopening of the airport as a priority to the recovery of Uganda’s economy,”
“Government should set an interim tentative date for the reopening of the airport, as this shall enable travelers who have only deferred their bookings, to include Uganda on their itinerary for travel in the near future,” She added.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the aviation industry due to travel restrictions and a slump in demand among travelers. The latest figures from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated that the airline industry has so far lost USD 419 billion of revenues globally due to the reduced number of passengers and it is estimated that full pre-COVID-19 recovery shall happen in 2024.
Uganda has witnessed all its tourism revenue of USD 1.6 billion eroded and more than 400,000 jobs lost in this period of closure and lockdown.
As such, Kakooza recommends that government fast-tracks the development of passenger and facility management of SOPs, for the reopening of Entebbe International Airport, and that the SOPs should be obtained from those already provided by the international aviation and health bodies.
She says consultation of the stakeholders including the tourism sector on the SOPs should be fast-tracked with the aim of re-opening the Airport next month.
On her part, Susan Muhwezi, the Chairperson of Uganda Hotel Owners Association, who heaped praise on government and President Museveni for guiding the country in the right direction on the COVID-19 pandemic, said it is time to start the country’s economy running despite the existence of the disease.
“We have been meeting with UTA and other agencies, government and ministry of finance to see what stimulus package can come to revive the sector. We are hopeful that by next week, we will have something coming out regarding the stimulus package. I know the President is going to discuss the re-opening of the airport,” explained Muhwezi.
She revealed that the Minister for Tourism has already raised the issue of reopening the airport in Cabinet, thus appealing to all stakeholders to work with government on the same and see to it that their demand of reopening the airport is met.
“We need to work with government because it has been trying. There is so much government has to deal with, it is not tourism alone. However, our cause is important, Kenya has opened, Rwanda has opened, we also need to open our skies but with caution and it has to start with the Ministry of Health and they need to work with the private sector,” added Muhwezi.
Everest Kayondo, the Chairperson of Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) said Uganda has the capability to put in place SOPs required to reopen the country’s international airport, saying government should even have done it earlier because of the huge contribution of the sector to the economy.
“If you fail to plan, that is a sure way of planning to fail and so, if we don’t have a timetable for re-opening the airport, then we are in danger. Our industry has been receiving 0.1% of government contribution from the total budget until recently (2020/2021 budget) when the allocation was increased to 0.4% but when it comes to the revenues, tourism sector contributes 10% to GDP and accounts for 25% of exchange inflows,” Kayondo explained.
Kayondo said the International Monitoring Fund (IMF), European Union (EU) and World Bank are offering grants and loans with zero interest to aid countries recover their economy, noting that government can utilize them to effect the SOPs at the airport.
“If IMF alone contributed USD 471 million for the stabilisation of the economy, that means we have the money which can help us to revamp and work on the airport,” says Kayondo.
According to Kayondo, even giving government a month to reopen up the airport is far, he suggests that it is done in two weeks since Uganda’s neighbours have already opened.
“What we need to do is to expedite the process of putting the SOPs in place and we start going. We have been patient for the last four or five months, we can not continue,” he said.
Kayondo added that Uganda can also look into what other countries have done including having a certificate indicating that a person is COVID-19 free from a test done in a specified period of time as well as asking airline companies to include medical insurance for passengers particularly on COVID-19 on air tickets which they buy.
He said, “In case you show the signs when you are still there, then the medical insurance cover will take care of that and you will not suffer extra expenses. These are the areas we look unto and can be subjected to whoever is operating and even the airline industry such that
when tourists are here, they can easily be helped without looking into their own pocket in case of an unwanted situation.”
