The Minister of Works and Transport Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala has appointed veteran aviation management professional, Fred Bamwesigye as the substantive Director-General of the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA).
The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority is a government body responsible for licensing, monitoring, and regulating civil aviation matters in the country. The body manages Entebbe International Airport and other airports and aerodromes, both government and privately owned in the country.
Mr Bamwesigye has been the Ag. Director-General of UCCA since July 2020 when the term of the then Director-General, David Kakuba expired. Before that, he was the Authority’s Deputy Director-General on 5th May 2018. Before that, he served as the UCAA Director of Human Resources and Administration from February 2009.
According to an appointing instrument, dated September 28, 2021, signed by the Minister, the new DG officially starts work today, 01st October 2021.
“In accordance with part IV, section 14(1) of the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority Act cap354, I hereby appoint you as Director-General, Uganda Civil Aviation Authority,” the instrument reads in part.
Before joining the Authority, he worked with the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), and also served as Legal and Human Resource Manager with the National Water and Sewerage Corporation.
He is an experienced aviation management professional with competencies in senior civil aviation management, managing aviation policy and regulation, transport economics and managing airport operations and air navigation services, all attained from the Singapore Aviation Academy.
His overall experience in corporate management and quality assurance spans over 25 years of service.
He is an advocate of the High Court of Uganda with a Master of Arts in Development Studies specializing in Human Resources Management from the Hague School of Development Studies in the Netherlands. He also holds a Diploma in Business Management from the University of Manchester, a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Makerere University.
He has been instrumental in overseeing the implementation of COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures at Entebbe International Airport and ensuring business continuity in steering the Authority through a difficult time when the aviation industry has been adversely affected by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted UCAA revenues, yet the Authority was expected to provide the same high level of services to all air transport users.
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Some of the achievements listed by the Authority, especially during the one year he has been the Acting DG, include:
- Implementation of the new Electronic Government Procurement system (eGP), which went live in November 2020. UCAA was one of the ten pilot entities.
- UCAA retained the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems Certification in 2021 following compliance with the stringent requirements of the standard by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). The certification body approved and re-certified UCAA, Entebbe International Airport and 11 other aerodromes to the ISO 9001:2015 standard in July 2021 for a period of three years up to 2024.
- Conclusion of various bilateral Air Service Agreements with various countries bringing the current total to 47 of which 25 are operational.
- Instrumental in the process for inclusion of the Uganda Airlines Airbus A330-800 neo aircraft fleet on the airline’s Air Operator Certificate.
- The attraction of new air operators to Uganda’s airspace; the most recent being Airlink, which commenced flights to South Africa on September 19, 2021, and Air Arabia, which is scheduled to commence flights to Sharjah on October 10, 2021.
- Approval of additional Aviation Training Organisations (ATOS), including Bar Aviation Academy, Kubis Aviation Academy and additional training programmes by Morea. The number of Approved ATOs is now 8.
- Renewal of Uganda Air Cargo’s Air Operator Certificate and re-activation of the Air Service License (ASL), which permits them to undertake commercial air cargo business.
- Uganda was able to compile and submit 100% of the Universal Security Audit Programme Continuous Monitoring Approach (USAP-CMA) Corrective Action Plan to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in November 2020 and ICAO acknowledged with appreciation in February 2021. This is expected to have a positive impact on Uganda’s compliance level.
- Provision of necessary support to the Ministry of Works and Transport in the establishment of an Accident and Incident Investigation unit.
Improved air navigation and safety at Entebbe International Airport
One of UCAA’s strategic objectives is to promote the development of an Air Navigation System aligned to the Global Air Navigation Plan (GANP) which is reputed for providing airspace users with improved capacity and efficiency. During the last 12 months, Mr Bamwesigye has led the UCCA team to improve and upgrade Uganda’s Air Traffic Management system,
One of the major improvements is the migration of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) from conventional navigation that uses ground aids to satellite-based navigation. Since 2020, arrival and departure procedures in Entebbe are now based on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). This has improved the safety, efficiency and capacity of the Ugandan airspace, for example allowing UCAA to implement free routing airspace within the Entebbe Flight Information Region (on request from IATA). Using this technology, a pilot can safely fly from point to point within the Ugandan airspace without following the published routes.
As a result of the above upgrades, UCAA has also been able to install a High Frequency (HF) radio system for the Rescue Coordination Centre at Entebbe International Airport. This facilitates the provision of Search and Rescue Services to aircraft in need of services within the Flight Information Region (FIR). The Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) at Port Bell, Luzira, was also installed. The replacement of the Distance Measuring Equipment at Entebbe is also ongoing as well as the upgrade of the Automatic weather observation system.
UCAA is also implementing the electronic terrain and obstacle data (eTOD) system across Uganda in line with ICAO requirements. This involves the collection of terrain and obstacle data for the entire country for use in various air navigation applications.
Upgrade and expansion of Entebbe International Airport 75.1% complete
According to UCAA despite Covid-19 interruptions, the upgrade and expansion of Entebbe International Airport is ongoing and is at 75.1% completion. Here below is the breakdown of the various components of the project.
| Description Of Work | Physical Progress |
| New Cargo Centre Complex | 97.43% |
| Additional Works on Cargo building and Changes | 32.5% |
| New Passenger Terminal Complex | 0.0% |
| Strengthening Of Runway 17/35 And Its Associated Taxiways | 100% |
| Strengthening and Expansion of Aircraft Parking Apron 1 | 84.7% |
| Rehabilitation of Aircraft Parking Apron 2 | 99.2% |
| Rehabilitation of Aircraft Parking Apron 4 | 100% |
| Strengthening of Runway 12/30 and Its Associated Taxiways | 100% |
| Domestic Water Tank & Fire Water Tank and Associated Facilities | 86.9% |
