The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has released an on-site audit and given Uganda a 72.17% score in terms of adherence to safety oversight systems.
Uganda has been undergoing a Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme – Continuous Monitoring Approach (USOAP-CMA), an on-site audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) from September 6 -18, 2023.
The Minister of State for Transport, Fred Byamukama, on Thursday, September 28, 2023, revealed that at the closing meeting of the audit held on September 18, 2023, ICAO’s Lead Auditor issued the preliminary results for Uganda with a score of 72.17%.
The minister said the results indicate an overall improvement in the safety performance of the state of Uganda, ranking the state above the regional/Eastern and Southern Africa (ESAF) region average of 55.66% and global average of 67.68%. The safety audit that was last done by ICAO in 2014 scored Uganda at 61.64%.
“The audit score is a vote of confidence in Uganda’s aviation safety system, which shows the entire international Aviation community that the country complies with (ICAO) standards,” Byamukama said.
He said the international audit was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of Uganda’s safety oversight systems in compliance with the ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs).
“The ICAO auditors clearly indicated that these are preliminary results, the final report with details will be issued by ICAO after six months. Industry practice is that the final results do not usually deviate a lot from the preliminary results,” Byamukama said.
He said ICAO conducts such audits every six (6) years and that if Uganda had not passed the audit, the country’s score would have been below that of the global and regional average, which would lead to loss of confidence in the country’s aviation system.
The minister also said the audit team appreciated the good work done by the regulator in the Certification process of Entebbe International Airport and re-certification of Uganda Airlines.
He also revealed that in August 2023, Entebbe International Airport recorded 93,560 arriving passengers and 97,947 departing passengers, a total of 191,507 passengers, an average of 6,177 per day, the highest figure to be ever recorded in a single month in the history of the airport.
“The August 2023 international passenger traffic reflects 38,048 passengers more than what was recorded in the same month of August 2022, and 6,254 more than was recorded in the previous month of July 2023,” he said.