Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Entebbe International Airport (HUEN/EBB) is Uganda's principal international gateway, set on a peninsula on the northern shore of Lake Victoria a short distance from Entebbe town and about 40 km south-west of Kampala. It offers a long ILS-equipped main runway and a shorter crosswind runway, making it accessible to a wide range of aircraft, and it carries a notable history stretching back to the colonial era and the 1976 hostage-rescue raid. For the visiting simulator pilot it combines busy international traffic with straightforward radar and tower services.
Entebbe International Airport is Uganda's only international airport and the country's principal aerial gateway, operated by the Civil Aviation Authority of Uganda. It sits on the shores of Lake Victoria close to the town of Entebbe and serves Kampala and the surrounding towns of Mukono, Kira and Mpigi. The field is of interest to a visiting pilot for its long main runway, full ILS approach, and its layered history from the colonial flying-boat era through to the dramatic 1976 hostage rescue.
The airport lies on the northern shore of Lake Victoria, about 6 km south-west of Entebbe town and roughly 40 km by road south-west of central Kampala. Entebbe provides area control, radar and tower services, indicating that the surrounding airspace is controlled to support the volume of international and regional traffic using the field.
Entebbe has two physical runways. The main runway, 17/35, is 12,031 ft long, has a hard surface, is lit, and is served by an ILS on runway 17. The secondary runway, 12/30, is also hard-surfaced and lit, with the database recording a length of 7,576 ft for runway 30 and 6,436 ft for runway 12.
Entebbe Radar Control (approach) operates on 126.6 MHz. Area control is provided by EBB on 128.5 MHz. The tower, callsign EBB, works on 118.1 MHz. Runway 17 is equipped with an ILS for instrument approaches.
The airport was established under British colonial administration, its site on Lake Victoria having been judged the most suitable for aviation traffic given the existing facilities there; Handley Page H.P.42 flying boats of Imperial Airways were using Entebbe by the 1930s. On 10 November 1951 the airport was formally reopened after extension work, with runway 12/30 lengthened to 9,900 ft to accommodate de Havilland Comet services. The main terminal building in use today was designed by architect Aleksandar Keković and built by Energoprojekt in 1972-1973. The old Entebbe airport, still used by Uganda's military, was the scene of Operation Entebbe in 1976, when Israeli Sayeret Matkal commandos carried out a hostage rescue after the hijacking of Air France Flight 139; the old terminal used in that operation has since been demolished, though its control tower and airport hall survive. In April 1979 the airport was partially destroyed when it was captured by Tanzanian forces during the Uganda-Tanzania War.
Since 2015 the airport has been undergoing a phased modernisation programme running into the 2030s, funded in part by a loan from the Export-Import Bank of China and a grant from the Government of South Korea. Phase I work included relocation and expansion of the cargo terminal, construction of a new passenger terminal building, and rehabilitation of the main runway (12/30), completed around 2019. A new Chinese-built cargo centre with capacity for 100,000 metric tonnes began commercial operations in 2022. Phase II has seen relocation and expansion of aviation fuel storage, including new underground tanks, while Phase III, planned for after 2024, is expected to include a new multi-storey car park, a new control tower, and resealing of the runways.
