On December 20, an Air France plane with 473 people on board made an emergency landing at Mombasa international airport due to suspicious bomb material that was found on board. As an East African, my heart was filled with joy that a developing country was able to handle an emergency of that magnitude.
Had the emergency landing happened in Uganda, it would have been a terrible embarrassment.
The first time (and so far the last) I flew to Arua in 2010, the runway at Arua airfield was murram. Would our budget suffer immensely if we prioritised tarmacking of at least five airfields in the towns of say Arua, Kasese, Gulu, Moroto and Mutukula?
Not long ago, Kenya’s main international airport, JKIA, had an emergency and had to divert all incoming air traffic to regional airports within the country. If there was such an emergency, for instance at Entebbe International airport, what would be our air traffic diversion options domestically before looking at regional airports?
It was also reported that all the 459 passengers were booked in hotels (I guess in Mombasa still) as investigations into the bomb scare got underway. If this emergency were to take place in a Ugandan town other than Kampla and Entebbe, do we have at least three star hotels to accommodate such a number?
Farouk Nyende,
nyendy@gmail.com
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