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Entebbe International Airport

Entebbe International Airport (IATA: EBB, ICAO: HUEN) is the only international airport in Uganda. It is located about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest of the town of Entebbe, on the northern shores of Lake Victoria. This is approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) by road south-west of the central business district of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.

The headquarters of the Civil Aviation Authority of Uganda have been relocated to a new block off the airport highway (Entebbe–Kampala Expressway and Tunnel Road), but adjacent to the airport terminals.

The airport was opened by the British Colonial authorities. According to the website of the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority, due to the airport's location on Lake Victoria and the existing facilities, the colonial government decided that the most optimal location for aviation traffic was Entebbe.

On 10 November 1951, the airport was formally reopened after its facilities had been extended. Runway 12/30 was now 9,900 feet (3,000 m), in preparation for services by the de Havilland Comet. The new main terminal building of the airport was designed by Yugoslav Montenegrin architect Aleksandar Keković and built by Energoprojekt holding in 1972-1973 period.

The Old Entebbe airport is used by Uganda's military forces. It was the scene of a hostage rescue operation by Israeli Sayeret Matkal, dubbed Operation Entebbe, in 1976 after an Arab-German hijacking of Air France Flight 139 following a stopover in Athens, Greece, en route to Paris from Tel Aviv. The scene of that rescue was the old terminal, which has been demolished, except for its control tower and airport hall. According to a 2006 published report, plans were made to construct a domestic passenger terminal at the site of the old airport. The airport was partially destroyed in April 1979 when it was captured by Tanzanian forces during the Uganda–Tanzania War.

According to ThePrint in November 2021, reports in African media suggest that China could take over the airport over the default of a loan, which was denied by China's foreign ministry and Government of Uganda. Bloomberg News reported that the Ugandan government is seeking to amend a $200m loan agreement it signed with the Export-Import Bank of China in 2015, to ensure it doesn't lose control of the airport, citing a report from the Daily Monitor, an independent Ugandan daily newspaper. On 1 December 2021, the Attorney General of Uganda stated they had seen the story regarding the airport in media and that it was reportedly fake news.

In February 2015, the Government of South Korea, through the Korea International Cooperation Agency, gave the Government of Uganda (GOU) a grant of USh 27 billion towards modernization of the airport. In the same month, the GOU began a three phase upgrade and expansion of the airport to last from 2015 until 2035. The entire renovation budget is approximately US$586 million.

In March 2022, online and print media reported that the Chinese-built cargo center, capable of handling 100,000 metric tonnes of cargo, had begun commercial operations. This had replaced the old cargo facility with capacity of 50,000 metric tonnes, originally converted from an old aircraft hangar. It is expected that later in 2024, upon completion of the ongoing Phase I upgrades, the airport will increase its passenger-handling capacity from 2 million to 3.5 million annually.

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airport serving Entebbe in Uganda
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