The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) is the government agency responsible for licensing, monitoring, and regulating civil aviation matters. It is administered by the Uganda Ministry of Works and Transport.

Location

The authority's head offices are at

Entebbe International Airport Entebbe International Airport is the only international airport in Uganda. It is located about southwest of the town of Entebbe, on the northern shores of Lake Victoria. This is approximately by road south-west of the central business distric ...

, approximately , by road, south of

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

, the capital and largest city of Uganda. The coordinates of the CAA headquarters are 0°02'23.0"N, 32°26'53.0"E (Latitude:0.039722; Longitude:32.448056).

Overview

The agency was created by an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

in 1994 as a state agency of the Ministry of Transport, Housing and Communication. As of October 2016, it was under the Ministry of Works and Transport. The mandate of the UCAA is to coordinate and oversee Uganda's aviation industry, including licensing, regulation, air search and rescue,

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

, ownership of airports and

aerodromes An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publi ...

, and Ugandan and international

aviation law Aviation law is the branch of law that concerns flight, air travel, and associated legal and business concerns. Some of its area of concern overlaps that of admiralty law and, in many cases, aviation law is considered a matter of international ...

. It also represents Uganda in an international capacity within the aviation community and in all other aviation matters. As of October 2016, the UCAA managed Entebbe International Airport and 13 other airports.

Organization and operations

, the CAA works with an administrative and operational structure of six directorates: (1) Directorate of Airports and Aviation Security (2) Directorate of Air Navigation Services (3) Directorate of Safety, Security & Economic Regulation (4) Directorate of Finance (5) Directorate of Human Resources & Administration (6) Directorate of Corporate Affairs

Expansion plans

In January 2015, Minister of Works and Transport

Abraham Byandala Abraham James Byandala is a Ugandan engineer and politician. He is the former Minister for Works and Transportation in the Ugandan Cabinet. He was appointed to that position on 27 May 2011. He replaced John Nasasira, who was appointed Govern ...

unveiled a 20-year plan to increase international airports from one to five and regional airports from two to three; and improve six existing local airports. The plan also calls for the improvement of Entebbe International Airport at a cost of US$200 million. Another $200 million will be needed to complete the upgrades to the other airports.

Governance

The chairman of the board of directors is Justice

Steven Kavuma Steven Kavuma is a Ugandan judge and the immediate former deputy chief justice of Uganda. He was appointed to that post on 5 March 2015. From April 2013 until March 2015, he served as the acting Chief Justice of Uganda, pending the appointment o ...

. Other members of the board are listed below. The acting chief executive officer and Director General is Fred Bamwesigye. As of June 2020, the following are the members of the board of Uganda Civil Aviation Authority: 1. Justice Steven Kavuma: Chairman 2. Moses Paul Lubowa 3. Ethel Kamba 4. Dr Alayo Ocero 5. Thomas James Kiggundu 6. Mr. John Bulindi 7. Angela Kiryabwire Kanyima 8. Zubairi Musoke

Name change

In July 2019, the

President of Uganda The president of the Republic of Uganda is the head of state and the head of government of Uganda. The president leads the executive branch of the government of Uganda and is the commander-in-chief of the Uganda People's Defence Force. The in ...

signed ''The CAA Amendment Act 2019''. The Parliamentary Act changed the name of the agency to ''Uganda Civil Aviation Authority''.

Recognition

In September 2019, UCAA was awarded an international aviation award in air safety following outstanding performance in the ''Universal Security Audit Programme'', conducted in 2017, by the

International Civil Aviation Organization The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sc ...

(ICAO). Uganda scored 81.8 percent in the audit, compared with the global average of 73 percent and the African and Indian Ocean (APII) states average of 58 percent, according to ICAO. In October 2019, the ''International Trade Council'', recognized the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority with the Government Agency of the Year Going Global Award 2019, in the Aviation Category. The award is in recognition of infrastructure improvement, staff training, customer care, support of tourism and facilitation of agricultural exports through Entebbe International Airport.

References

External links

Uganda Civil Aviation Authority Official WebsiteBehind Air Uganda Grounding
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Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

Government agencies of Uganda Civil aviation in Uganda Government agencies established in 1994 Organisations based in Entebbe 1994 establishments in Uganda Air navigation service providers Transport organisations based in Uganda