The airport was opened by the British Colonial authorities. On 10 November 1951, the airport was formally reopened after its facilities had been extended. Runway 12/30 was now, in preparation for services by the de Havilland Comet. The new main terminal building of the airport was designed by YugoslavMontenegrin architect Aleksandar Keković and built by Energoprojekt holding in 1972-1973 period. The Old Entebbe airport is used by Uganda's military forces. It was the scene of a hostage rescue operation by Israeli Sayeret Matkal, dubbed Operation Entebbe, in 1976 after an Arab-German hijacking of Air France Flight 139 following a stopover in Athens, Greece en route to Paris from Tel Aviv. The scene of that rescue was the old terminal, which has been demolished, except for its control tower and airport hall. According to a 2006 published report, plans were made to construct a domestic passenger terminal at the site of the old airport. The airport was partially destroyed in April 1979 when it was captured by Tanzanian forces during the Uganda–Tanzania War.
In April 2016, Minister of WorksJohn Byabagambi launched a UGX:42.6 billion project to expand the departure and arrival lounges. The work will be carried out by Seyani Brothers Limited and will be fully funded by the Civil Aviation Authority of Uganda. Construction is scheduled to commence on 1 June 2016 with completion expected in December 2017. This work is separate from the large expansion partially funded by the government of South Korea and People's Republic of China.
Passenger traffic
Since 2002, international passenger traffic at the airport has increased annually, except for 2009 when the Great Recession caused a small decline and 2014.
Year
Passengers
Difference
1991
118,527
1992
130,704
+10.3%
1993
148,502
+13.6%
1994
191,706
+29.1%
1995
254,335
+32.7%
1996
296,778
+16.7%
1997
326,265
+9.9%
1998
334,681
+2.6%
1999
344,686
+3.0%
2000
343,846
-0.2%
2001
343,722
0.0%
2002
362,075
+5.3%
2003
416,697
+15.1%
2004
475,726
+14.2%
2005
551,853
+16.0%
2006
643,330
+16.6%
2007
781,428
+21.5%
2008
936,184
+19.8%
2009
929,052
–0.8%
2010
1,023,437
+10.2%
2011
1,085,609
+6.1%
2012
1,238,536
+14.1%
2013
1,343,963
+8.5%
2014
1,332,499
-0.9%
2015
1,390,000
+4.3
2016
1,420,000
+2.2%
2017
1,650,000
+16.2%
2018
1,840,264
+11.5%
Facilities
Passenger facilities include a left-luggage office, banks, automated teller machines, foreign exchange bureaux, restaurants, and duty-free shops.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
Notes: ;Airlines offering specialized passenger service to non-stop destinations:
Cargo
Ground handling
, there were two ground-handling companies serving this airport:
As of January 2020, Uganda Airlines was making arrangements to establish self ground handling services at EBB, later that year.
Incidents
In 1976, Air France Flight 139 from Tel Aviv to Paris via Athens was hijacked and taken to Entebbe, and Israeli commandos rescued the hostages in Operation Entebbe.
On 9 March 2009, AeroliftIlyushin Il-76 S9-SAB crashed into Lake Victoria just after takeoff from Entebbe airport, killing all 11 people on board. Two of the engines had caught fire on take-off. The aircraft had been chartered by Dynacorp on behalf of the African Union Mission to Somalia. The accident was investigated by Uganda's Ministry of Transport, which concluded that all four engines were time-expired and that Aerolift's claim that maintenance had been performed to extend their service life or that the work had been certified could not be substantiated.
