By the end of 2018, Entebbe International Airport will bid farewell to manual operations system and adopt a digital operating system. This comes after the government of South Korea through the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ministry of Finance Uganda in 2014 to fund the modernization and automation of all facilities and operations at Entebbe International Airport. The project scope was arrived at after a series of technical surveys by Korean experts while the terms of reference were prepared and agreed upon by Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Uganda and KOICA. The seven million US Dollar grant (USD7m) from the South Korean Government will by the end of 2018 see Entebbe International Airport adopt;
- A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS),
- A single fully automated Airport Operational Database (AODB) System. Entebbe International Airport will also;
- Implement ATS Message Handling System (AMHS),
- Improve flight procedure efficiency through Air Traffic Management,
- Strengthen Uganda’s Human resource capability through training by South Korean experts.
CAA Director Dr. Rama Makuza lauded the South Korean Government and KOICA for setting aside a USD7m grant for the project which commenced in March 2016 and revealed that CAA has on it’s part come up with counterpart funding of approximately USD 250,000 towards the project that is expected to be delivered by 2018.
We (CAA) are grateful for the intervention that the South Korean Government and KOICA have made towards creating a mechanism for improving efficiency and aviation safety through modernization and automation of facilities at Entebbe International Airport. The Project that would otherwise have taken CAA a longer time to accomplish will go a long way in improving safety, efficiency of Airport systems and attainment of sustainability through strengthening of the human resource capacity in terms of training, Dr. Makuza disclosed.
The South Korean Ambassador to Uganda Jongdae Park disclosed that Entebbe International Airport is the first Airport in the East African Region that will benefit from the system improvement. He revealed that the system improvement will help Uganda attain it’s Vision 2040 National Development goals through enhancing operational efficiency at Entebbe International Airport and cutting costs.
KOICA is the implementing agency of the project on behalf of the Korean government through a consortium of three companies Korea Airports Authority, woorizen Co. Ltd and NAV Korea.
