Air Traffic continues to Grow-CAA
Ignie Igundura, the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson, has released the 2012 performance statistics and they show that Passenger traffic grew by a margin of 14.1 percentage points while cargo traffic added around 15 percent, compared to the year 2011. Passenger numbers exceeded 1.23 million, up from 1.08 million last year, and considering the difficult year the global travel and tourism industries had, this is seen as further evidence that Uganda’s position in the world of tourism has grown in leaps and bounds over past years and that the Lonely Planet’s naming Uganda as The Destination 2012 has born fruits, along the – albeit rather subdued – celebrations of 50 years of Independence from Britain. Notably did domestic air travel for the first time in years in fact, show a robust increase from 9.508 passengers in 2011 to 13.780 passengers flown in 2012, a rise by over 42.7 percent, though in the face of dramatic declines in past years. The upturn in domestic flights is largely attributed to commercial exploration activities in the oil and gas sector but also a more buoyant tourism industry. There will be a focus on Uganda’s aviation sector come July this year as the Routes Africa meeting, held with record attendance last year in Victoria / Seychelles, has been awarded to the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority to host – the first time this ever happened at an active session for the next year – and even greater numbers of participating airlines, airport, tourism authorities and related institutions are expected to come to Uganda to strategize over airline cooperation, the launch of new routes and the general promotion of the aviation industry.
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