Gulu Airport

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Gulu Airport

IATA: ULU - ICAO: HUGU
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Uganda Civil Aviation Authority
Serves		Gulu
Elevation AMSL		3,510 ft (1,070 m)
Coordinates		02°48′20″N, 32°16′18″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
17/35	10,314	3,144	Asphalt

Gulu Airport (IATA: ULU, ICAO: HUGU) is a civilian airport located 1.9 kilometers from the town of Gulu, Gulu District, northern Uganda. No airplane fuel service or customs service is available, however crash assistance and fire service (fire truck with 2000 liters of water, foam capability and DCP) is at hand between 08:00am - 17:00pm (local time). A small terminal is located next to the airport and taxis service the trip to town. A newly installed mobile Air Traffic Control Center is available from 08:00am until 17:00pm (local time). ATC may be contacted on 123.7MHz using HF communications. No navigation aids, runway lights or VHF exists. Weather office in Gulu town is not in use.

The runway was built in 1959 and has never seen any surface servicing since. The tarmac runway is heavily cracked but still suitable for small to medium aircraft. Hopes of upgrading the airport during the CHOGM event in 2007 did not realize. The airport grounds are fenced off completely to minimize animal movements onto the runway.

Fugro's Airborne Survey division was contracted by the Government of Uganda to perform airborne geophysical mineral exploration surveys throughout Uganda between 2006 and 2009. To perform their duties in Northern Uganda, the company is basing two aircraft (Reims 406 and Cessna 208) out of Gulu with daily low level (80 meters AGL) flights up to the Sudanese border.

During the twenty one years of civil war between the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government, the Ugandan Airforce actively based from Gulu. Peace talks started in 2006, and as of 2008 all LRA rebel activity had been removed from Northern Uganda, and thus the Gulu millitary presence has been reduced to a sizeable ground force with no aircraft, based around the millitary hangarage on the left of runway 35. It is advisable to stay away from the millitary section of the airport at all times.

Charter flights between Gulu and Moyo Airport, Arua Airport and Pakuba Airport are also occasionally flown. Eagle Air has regular flights from Entebbe Airport on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.