Statistical Analysis of the Gross Domestic Product Revenue Performance of the Airline Transport in Comparison to Road Transport in Uganda

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the GDP revenue performance of the airline transport in comparison to road transport in Uganda. The research objectives that guided this study were to compare the GDP revenue performance from the airline transport with that from road transport in Uganda and to compare the volatility in GDP revenue performance of the airline transport with that of road transport in Uganda. This study used a comparative research design to address the objectives and it was entirely quantitative approach to collect data about GDP revenue performance of the air transport mode and road transport mode. In this study, the data population was all the data about Uganda’s GDP revenue performance of the mostly used transport modes that include Uganda’s air transport and road transport. This study used secondary data from statistical abstracts about Uganda’s GDP revenue performance for the air and road transport that had been already compiled by Uganda Bureau of Statistics (2002 to 2017) to collect data for the period from 1997 to 2016. The comparative analysis involved using t-tests to compare Uganda’s GDP revenue performance for the air and road transport. Findings revealed a significant difference in the mean scores for GDP revenue performance for air transport and GDP revenue performance for road transport during the period 1997 to 2017. This study established that generally the GDP revenue performance for the airline transport and road transport in Uganda increased during the period 1997 to 2017. However, the GDP revenue performance of the road transport was higher compared to that of the airline transport throughout the period. Lastly, volatility results showed that a significant difference in variability of GDP revenue performance for air transport and GDP revenue performance for road transport during the period 1997 to 2017. However, the variation of GDP revenue performance of the road transport were larger compared to the airline transport during the period. Thus, the contribution of road revenue performance to GDP was more unreliable compared to the contribution of airline revenue performance to GDP. It was concluded that the Uganda government should continue improving the GDP revenue performance for both airline transport and road transport through increasing the volume of traffic for both transport modes in terms of both the quantity of goods and passengers as well diversification of business handled by both transport modes. This is because both modes of transport are importance to the economic development of Uganda. However, more improvement efforts are required for the airline transport given that its contribution was less compared to the of road transport. The government of Uganda should try as much to reduce that large variability in GDP revenue performance of the road transport. It needs to ensure a stable flow of road traffic by addressing the season variability that affect the volume of traffic by road.