Entebbe, Aerolink and the airstrips
Flying to Murchison Falls: schedules, charters and cost
Murchison has three park airstrips and one scheduled operator between them and Entebbe, and the schedule is more current and more limited than most safari pages let on. Here is what actually flies as of 13 September 2026, what the charter layer underneath it looks like, and an honest read on whether flying beats the drive from Kampala.
If you only want the answer
Aerolink Uganda flies Entebbe to Pakuba, Chobe or Bugungu once a day, year-round except March, April, May and November, and the flight needs four passengers per airstrip to go ahead. Nobody, including Aerolink itself, publishes a fixed fare for the route, so budget several hundred dollars per person each way and confirm the number when you book. Flying saves you roughly half a day over the 4 to 5 hour drive from Kampala to the southern gate, which matters most on a short trip or a lodge package with the transfer already arranged. If you are self-driving with days to spare, the road is the better use of your money.
Aerolink's 2026 schedule: what's actually flying
Aerolink Uganda is the only scheduled operator into Murchison, flying Cessna Grand Caravans out of the passenger terminal at Entebbe International Airport. Its 2026 timetable, valid January to December and checked on 13 September 2026, lists a single daily rotation: flight A8 121 leaves Entebbe at 13:00 and lands at whichever of Pakuba, Chobe or Bugungu the day's bookings require by 14:00, and A8 122 leaves Murchison at 14:20 and is back in Entebbe by 17:15 after calling at other airstrips on the way.
Two conditions decide whether that flight actually happens. The route is suspended entirely in March, April, May and November, so those four months are charter-only no matter how far ahead you book. And Aerolink requires a minimum of four passengers per airstrip before it will fly; fall short and the timetable itself says the service becomes non-operational for that day, which is worth knowing if you are travelling as a couple rather than a group.
The 14:20 departure out of Murchison also continues on to Kasese, for Kibale and Queen Elizabeth, and to Kihihi, for Bwindi, which is what lets you build Murchison into a wider fly-in circuit without doubling back through Entebbe. Aerolink only guarantees connections inside its own network. A leg to or from Jinja is available on request at a surcharge of 1,000 dollars.
Check in 60 minutes ahead at Entebbe and 30 minutes at any bush airstrip. Baggage is 15 kg total per passenger including hand luggage, in soft bags no larger than 60 by 45 by 33 cm, with excess charged at 5 dollars a kilo and carriage at the airline's discretion. Children aged two to eleven pay 70 per cent of the adult fare.
| Flight | From | To | Depart | Arrive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A8 121 | Entebbe | Pakuba, Chobe or Bugungu | 13:00 | 14:00 |
| A8 122 | Pakuba, Chobe or Bugungu | Entebbe | 14:20 | 17:15 |
| A8 121 (same aircraft) | Pakuba, Chobe or Bugungu | Kasese or Kihihi | 14:20 | 15:30 |
Confirmed against Aerolink's own 2026 timetable PDF and its live booking portal on 13 September 2026. Airline schedules move; reconfirm within a week or two of travel, especially near the edge of the March to May or November gap.
Fares nobody publishes, and the charter layer underneath
Aerolink prices this route the way most East African bush operators do: nothing is posted, and a fare only appears once you run real dates through its booking portal or ask its reservations desk directly. The only numbers we found in the open were quoted by third-party agents for 2022 travel, in the low 260 to 280 dollar range one way, and those are four years stale and not something to plan a 2026 trip around. Treat the flight as costing several times a night in a budget bed and get a live quote before you commit.
Below the scheduled service sits the charter layer, and it is how you fly in March, April, May or November, with fewer than four people, or into an airstrip Aerolink is not serving that day. Charters run out of Entebbe or Kajjansi airfield near Kampala; Bar Aviation operates from Kajjansi but lists no scheduled safari routes or prices of its own, which is typical of this market. You pay for the aircraft, not the seat, so a charter for two costs the same as a charter for six.
UWA charges the aircraft as well as the passengers. Landing fees run from 20 dollars for a plane with up to three seats to 60 dollars above twenty seats, or 125 dollars for a helicopter, plus UGX 10,000 a day to park. None of that shows up in your ticket price on a scheduled flight, since Aerolink absorbs it, but a charter operator will pass it through. Passengers still pay park entry on top, exactly as they would arriving by road.
The honest comparison: drive or fly?
The drive from Kampala to the Kichumbanyobo gate is 305 km and takes 4 to 5 hours on tarmac the whole way, and UWA's own advice is to add another 1 to 2 hours from whichever gate you use to reach your actual lodge, since the internal speed limit is 40 km/h. Flying replaces most of that with a 1 hour hop plus check-in, and the arithmetic works out to roughly half a day gained, not a full one, once you count the drive from Kampala to Entebbe and the transfer from the airstrip to your lodge on the other end.
That transfer is not always short. Pakuba Safari Lodge sits on the airstrip itself, but Paraa Safari Lodge quotes 20 km from Pakuba or 12 km from Bugungu, and most of the lodges west of Paraa list Bugungu as their strip with a real road transfer to follow. Ask your lodge what meets the plane before you assume flying ends at your door.
The stronger argument for driving is not time, it is money and independence. A self-driving foreign visitor pays 160 dollars a day just to bring a foreign-registered 4x4 into the park, against roughly 11 dollars for a Ugandan-registered hire vehicle, and a self-guided game drive costs 10 dollars a vehicle rather than 25 for a guide. None of that changes whether you fly or drive, but it does mean the vehicle you arrive in, not the trip to get there, is where the real Murchison budget decision sits. Fly in without a car arranged and you still need one for the game tracks.
Flying earns its place in three situations. A short trip, four or five days total, where two days of driving is a poor trade against the cost of a flight. A lodge package on the north bank, at Paraa, Pakuba or Chobe, where the property has arranged the airstrip transfer and you land close to the Buligi circuits that hold most of the park's game. And a multi-park itinerary using the 14:20 connection onward to Kasese or Kihihi, which turns Murchison into one leg of a fly-in trip rather than a there-and-back.
Driving wins for everyone else: anyone on a longer safari with days to spend on the road, anyone self-driving with their own vehicle or camping gear, anyone travelling in March, April, May or November when there is no scheduled flight to book, and anyone for whom 160 dollars a day in vehicle fees already outweighs a plane ticket.
- Short trip, four to five days: flying saves the half day that matters most.
- North bank lodge package with a confirmed airstrip transfer: fly, the lodge meets the plane.
- Multi-park fly-in circuit onward to Kasese or Kihihi: fly, and let the 14:20 connection do the joining.
- Self-driving with your own vehicle or camping gear: drive, since you need the wheels once you land anyway.
- Travelling in March, April, May or November: drive, or arrange a charter well ahead.
- Two people travelling alone on a scheduled seat: drive, or confirm the four-passenger minimum will be met before you rely on the flight.