Uganda's Third International Airport Breaks Ground in Kidepo: A $72M Gateway to Karamoja

Kidepo is conceived specifically to unlock a part of the country that has historically been underserved by both transport infrastructure and investment, while sitting adjacent to one of Africa's most celebrated wilderness destinations, Kidepo Valley National Park.

President Yoweri Museveni presided over the official groundbreaking ceremony for the Kidepo International Airport on Friday, marking a decisive turn for infrastructure development in Uganda's remote but resource-rich north. The event, held in Karenga District within the Karamoja sub-region, signals the transition of a long-planned facility from proposal to active construction, and positions Uganda's aviation network for a significant northward expansion.

A Third Pillar for Uganda's Aviation Network

When complete, Kidepo International Airport will join Entebbe International and Kabalega International Airport in Hoima as Uganda's three designated international aviation hubs. Unlike its counterparts, however, Kidepo is conceived specifically to unlock a part of the country that has historically been underserved by both transport infrastructure and investment, while sitting adjacent to one of Africa's most celebrated wilderness destinations, Kidepo Valley National Park.

The project has been years in the making. More than three years were dedicated to feasibility studies and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) before this month's groundbreaking, reflecting the complexity of developing major aviation infrastructure in a sensitive ecological and logistical environment.

UAE Partnership and Project Financing

The airport is being developed under a public-private partnership framework anchored by the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the United Arab Emirates, under a Memorandum of Understanding originally signed in August 2024. Total capital expenditure is estimated at USD 72 million (approximately Shs 273.6 billion), to be delivered across three distinct construction phases.

The UAE partnership extends Uganda's growing track record of attracting Gulf-state investment into infrastructure, and reflects Sharjah's strategic interest in establishing trade and logistics corridors with East African economies.

Groundbreaking Ceremony at the Newly Launched Site for the Construction of Kidepo International Airport in Karenga District. Photo Credit/PPU

Technical Specifications: Built for Wide-Body Operations

Data presented by the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) at the groundbreaking ceremony reveals a facility designed for genuine international-grade operations from day one, with structural provisions for future scaling.

The airport is to be located at Lomej, approximately three kilometres south of the Kidepo Valley National Park headquarters, a siting that UCAA and the Ministry of Works say achieves the optimal balance between operational safety margins, wildlife conservation requirements, and future runway extension capacity.

The facility is classified as a Code 4E international airport, with structural provisions built in to scale to Code 4F standards, the highest international classification — as traffic and cargo volumes grow.

Infrastructure Component	Baseline Specification	Key Capability
Runway	3,600 m × 60 m (with stabilisation shoulders)	Supports Boeing 777-200ER, Boeing 747, Airbus A330 & A340
Passenger Terminal	7,408 m²	Direct international tourist arrivals processing
Cargo Terminal	74,200 m²	Heavy-freight export corridor for agricultural and regional products
Access Roads	12.3 km of new roads	Heavy machinery and supply-chain logistics to the construction site

The cargo terminal footprint is particularly notable, at over 74,000 square metres, it signals a clear ambition to establish Kidepo not merely as a tourism gateway but as a northern logistics node capable of handling bulk agricultural and other miscellaneous regional export volumes from across the Karamoja sub-region.

Economic Footprint and Local Employment

Construction is already generating a direct economic impact in the surrounding communities. Over 1,620 Ugandans, predominantly drawn from local labour in Karenga District, are currently employed on the project, a figure that is expected to grow as the phased build-out intensifies.

The facility's long-term economic case rests on two pillars: tourism and trade. On the tourism side, direct international flights into Kidepo would eliminate the multi-hour overland transfer currently required from Entebbe, a journey of roughly eight to ten hours that remains a significant deterrent for time-constrained international visitors to the park. On the trade side, the large-scale cargo terminal is positioned to create new export pathways for Karamoja's agricultural sector, which has historically struggled with high transport costs to southern markets and ports.

The Road Bottleneck: An Urgent Parallel Priority

Despite the optimism surrounding the groundbreaking, local leadership used the occasion to draw attention to a critical infrastructure gap that could undermine the airport's three-phase construction timeline: the state of the Karenga–Kitgum road corridor.

The Ministry of Works has been urged to fast-track the bituminisation (tarmacking) of this road to handle the heavy transport logistics the construction programme demands. Without an all-weather paved route to the site, movement of construction materials, machinery, and eventually passengers and freight risks severe disruption during Uganda's rainy seasons. It is a familiar challenge in large infrastructure projects in Uganda's north, the airport cannot fully deliver on its promise if the connective road infrastructure is not developed in parallel.

Outlook

The Kidepo International Airport project represents one of the most strategically significant infrastructure commitments to northern Uganda in a generation. If delivered on schedule and to specification, it has the potential to restructure tourism flows to Kidepo Valley National Park, reduce the cost of doing business across Karamoja, and establish a new logistics corridor that connects the sub-region more directly to regional and global supply chains.

The groundbreaking marks the end of the planning phase. The harder work of managing a phased, multi-year construction programme in a remote environment, while ensuring road and utilities infrastructure keeps pace, officially just begun.

Recall that, Kidepo is not the only airport project on Uganda's near-term horizon, a proposed international hub in Mbarara, positioned as a refuelling corridor between South America and East Asia, is also attracting attention.