ENTEBBE, Uganda – Entebbe International Airport has once again run out of jet fuel, causing airlines to implement emergency planning measures to find fuel en route to or from Uganda.
Tomorrow’s South African Airways flight has already been scheduled to fly home to Johannesburg via Nairobi, to refuel there. Other airlines are also scrambling to coordinatee with their flight operations departments to either carry additional fuel on board when coming to Entebbe ( a costly proposition considering the added weight), or else having to incur the cost of ‘technical’ landings en route to refuel for a flight to the final destination.
Aviation sources have expressed their anger and frustration with Shell, but also with the Ugandan Civil Aviation Authority, which licenses the fuel depots operators and managers, for failing to avail enough reserves of jet fuel yet again. Other sources from the Kajjansi airfield – frequesnt victims of Shells erratic supplies of AVGAS -have opted not to comment, which in itself is comment enough on what they think of Shell and Total’s professionalism and ability to do their jobs right.
The source close to the regulators in Entebbe, made very little sense while saying: ‘with all the new flights coming to Entebbe now it is a bit of a problem to have enough fuel’, especially considering that it is the very CAA which is promoting Entebbe as an airport of choice and has finally been managing to bring in new airlines, only to see them suffer by finding no fuel, for the umpteenth time.
