Uganda’s aviation sector is quietly experiencing its strongest recovery in decades. Entebbe International Airport recorded over 2.2 million international passengers in 2024, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Cargo exports of flowers, fish and others are climbing. Uganda Airlines, with its modern fleet of A330neos and CRJ900s, has expanded its network and is now flying to 14 countries, serving 18 destinations with 21 routes. Regional airports such as Arua and Mbarara are registering double and triple-digit growth.
On paper, this is progress. But progress in aviation, unless tied directly to tourism, risks becoming a hollow victory. Airplanes and airports are not ends in themselves; they are enablers of economic transformation. Tourism is the logical partner that can turn these gains into national prosperity. Afterall, people fly to destinations.
Uganda’s tourism assets are unmatched. The country sits astride the equator with the Rwenzori Mountains, source of the Nile, and half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas. Festivals like Nyege Nyege in Jinja generate millions for the local economy, while the Rwenzori Marathon is emerging as a signature sports tourism event. Kampala has already demonstrated its capacity to host large-scale conferences, from the Non-Aligned Movement Summit to continental agriculture forums. These events deliver concentrated international traffic consisting of delegates, media, and business leaders. Yet the aviation system is not fully tuned to harness this demand.
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The opportunity is clear: forge a marriage between aviation and tourism. Without that, Uganda risks underutilizing its airports, underfunding its airline, and underselling its natural and cultural wealth.
Africa remains one of the most expensive regions for air travel, with limited intra-continental routes. A traveler from West Africa attending Nyege Nyege may find it easier to transit through Dubai than fly directly. Domestic airports like Kasese and Gulu, though registering growth, are still underutilized. Uganda Airlines has added new African destinations, but its schedules and pricing do not yet align with tourism calendars and major events.
Compare this to Cape Town Air Access in South Africa, a partnership between airlines, government, and the tourism sector that strategically targeted routes aligned with leisure and business demand. Within five years, Cape Town added over a dozen new international routes and saw a tourism windfall worth billions of rand. Rwanda, too, has leveraged RwandAir as a tool for its Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) strategy. The country pairs every major conference bid with guaranteed air access, hotel readiness, and a tourism package.
Uganda has not yet reached this level of orchestration. Aviation and tourism here remain parallel tracks. The airline sells flights, the tourism board promotes the country’s major attractions. Rarely do they sit at the same table to co-create demand.
The path forward requires deliberate integration. Here are three steps that should take priority.
First, align air access with tourism demand. Uganda Airlines and private carriers should work with the Uganda Tourism Board to design schedules and fares around festivals, marathons, and summits. Seasonal charters to Kasese during the Rwenzori Marathon, or extra frequencies around Nyege Nyege, would both stimulate demand and prove route viability. This is easier said than done but it starts with deliberate intent and a concerted effort.
Second, develop secondary airports to be positioned as tourism gateways. The likes of Arua, Mbarara, and Kidepo Airport should not just serve local air routings but anchor regional tourism circuits. As it stands, most of Uganda’s airports are not yet fit for purpose but safari packages tied directly to regional flights can spread tourism benefits well beyond Kampala and Entebbe.
Third, institutionalize collaboration through a joint aviation-tourism task force. This body would pool data on visitor arrivals, event calendars, airfares, and load factors and use it to pitch Uganda to global tour operators and airlines. It would also negotiate incentives, just as Cape Town Air Access did, to attract new carriers and frequencies. This is the hallmark of an air access strategy.
Uganda’s timing is fortuitous. The country will co-host the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027 with Kenya and Tanzania, an event guaranteed to generate unprecedented visitor numbers. The aviation-tourism marriage must be consummated before then if Uganda is to capture the full dividend. Every major sporting event, cultural festival, and international summit from here-on can serve as a test case to refine this model.
Every international arrival has a ripple effect, and ultimately because of these flights that will deliver tourists further to secondary cities, entire local economies are unlocked. It means more craft makers supplying souvenirs, smallholder farmers getting to supply more fresh produce, cultural troupes performing for visitors,youth gaining employment as guides and drivers, tourism entrepreneurs finding more business and so much more. This is the multiplier effect.
Aviation and tourism can continue as polite neighbors, each making progress in isolation, or they can marry into a partnership that drives jobs, exports, and visibility. The former path leads to underutilized infrastructure and missed opportunities. The latter positions Uganda as a true regional hub supporting an entire ecosystem that shows a huge return investment.
The writer, Derek Nseko is an aviation analyst and CEO at Airspace Africa
derek@airspace-africa.com twitter: @av8r_derek
