The long clearance time and procedure that they have to go through to depart for various destinations.
Expansion works are being undertaken at the check-in area in the departure lounge. The area where luggage used to be checked-in is closed off and a tent has been erected in the drive-way.
Temporally counters have been set up from where agents of various airlines check in their clients.
Passengers complain that clearing agents are using long procedures.
By the time you reach the counter your flight could already have gone. Some passengers are getting lost in the tent, they don’t know where to start from.
Passengers said they arrived at the airport at around 1pm but by 3pm they had not yet been cleared.
Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) principal public affairs officer Vianney Luggya Mpungu said it was not possible that anyone could have missed a flight because of the temporary check in arrangement.
Passengers missing flights is mainly due to a combination of factors including delays on the road as a result of the increasing traffic jam on Entebbe Road, ongoing road construction works, and failure by passengers to plan for adequate time before departure,Mr Luggya of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Mr Luggya says that the current temporary re-routing of passengers at check-in follows the same departure formalities that were previously followed thus no delays could be caused.
The temporary check-in arrangement is scheduled to last only three months as the new modern baggage handling system is being installed, he said.
Mr Eliah Kamugisha, the OC traffic at Entebbe Main Police Station, acknowledged the traffic jam on Entebbe highway but further stated that it was because of the travellers’ own inconveniences that some miss their flights.
He said that it can take one and half hours to leave Kampala and reach Entebbe in time or even one hour on normal days.
“When we have Very Important Persons in the country and travellers are re-routed, it can take about two and a half hours. So if you know your flight is at 5pm plan your movements earlier,” he said.
Travellers first go out with their friends and family and when they see that it is about one hour left to the flight, they speed off from Kampala, thus reaching the airport late Mr Eliah Kamugisha, the OC traffic at Entebbe Main Police Station said.
Mr Kamugisha further dismissed the 3-5 minute check conducted as one accesses the airport as a possible reason for one to miss their flight stating that it is along the way that could lead to one missing their flight.
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