FG Announces Measures To Ease Passengers’ Plight During Abuja Airport Closure

The Federal Government on Monday announced measures to ease the plight
of passengers during the six weeks that the Nnamdi Azikiwe
International Airport in Abuja
will be closed for the reconstruction of the sole runway.

The measures were announced at a joint press conference in Abuja,
attended by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of
State for Aviation Hadi Sirika, Representative of the Minister of
Power, Works and Housing as well as the Inspector-General of Police,
Mr. Ibrahim Idris.

Passengers travelling between Abuja and Kaduna, where Abuja-bound
flights will be diverted during the six-week closure starting on
Wednesday, 8 March, will be provided with free bus and train service
during the closure, Mr. Sirika said

There will also be adequate security, with the police deploying the
air wing, the counter-terrorism and the special units to ensure the
safety of passengers travelling between Kaduna and Abuja, according to
the Inspector-General of Police.

It was also announced that the rehabilitation of the Abuja-Kaduna road
has been completed and that the road is now very motorable

Explaining the need to shut the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja for
the reconstruction of its runway, the Minister of Information and
Culture said it was due to the total neglect of the runway since it
was built over 30 years ago.

“When an airport is built there is a maintenance schedule depending on
the number of landings that have been made. After a particular number
of landing there is what we call surface cleaning, which is done.
After additional landings, we now do resurfacing, after that it is
closed completely and we do reconstruction.

“In the case of the Abuja Airport, for 34 years neither surface
cleaning has been done nor resurfacing and it has deteriorated, so
what we are doing is total reconstruction and there is no other
alternative than to close the runway,” he said.

For his part, the Minister of State for Aviation said adequate
logistical arrangements have been made for the comfort and safety of
all passengers

He said both the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria
(COREN) and the National Society of Engineers (NSE) have agreed with
the government that the integrity of the Abuja Airport runway has been
degraded and that the only way to ensure safety on the runway is total
reconstruction.

Mr. Sirika said the government is adopting the Concession Model to
ensure that all the airports in the country are rehabilitated to meet
global best practices and safety.

“We are concessioning the entire airports in Nigeria that belong to
government. We will begin by concessioning four. Concession means we
will give it to a private entrepreneur who has the wherewithal, the
know-how, the technology, the capacity, the ability, the finance to
put up huge fantastic edifices as airports with everything including
hotels, just the way you see them abroad,” he said