Investigating the impact of visibility on flight operations at Entebbe International Airport
Abstract
Low visibility conditions create numerous operational and safety hazards in air
transport. The general objective of this study was to examine the impact of visibility
on flight delays at EIA. To achieve this, the research was guided by three specific
objectives and data was collected basing on these objectives. The study used
secondary data for a period of 10 years from 2007 to 2016. The trend, graphical and
correlation analysis techniques were used with the help of Excel and MATLAB
software packages. The significance of the computed correlation was established
using the t-test at 95% confidence level.
Findings indicated that there is a statistically significant impact of visibility on flight
delays at EIA. It was noted that among all the weather phenomena that reduce
visibility at EIA, fog reduces visibility to the largest extent compared to other
weather phenomena. The study also noted that good visibility conditions are
experienced in the wet seasons MAM and SON and it deteriorates in dry months
December, January, July and August.
The study recommended that research should be carried out to establish the
effectiveness of the Instrument Landing System used during low visibility conditions
in reducing flight delays. It also recommended that flight schedulers should pay
attention to the time of the day in which flights are scheduled especially in those
months associated with poor visibility condition