Foreign Airlines Have Notified Nigerian Government Of Their Unwillingness To Operate From Kaduna Airport During The Planned Closure Of Abuja Airport!

This is what you get when you have unreasonable, irrational, illogical, odd, strange, queer, weird and bizarre people as policy makers in a country of nearly 200 million people. 

It is Rotimi Amaechi who offhandedly made this decision and defended it to the last minute. How could a country close it's major airport, an international gateway to the capital city just for repair or the so called reconstruction of it's runways. It's like United Kingdom closing Heathrow airport for a major repair, which is not impossible, but will make sure there is another airport within the same city to cushion the effect of the closure. Not only that, it must also be a long-term plan which will give enough time if possible to build another airport within proximity to the one that will be closed for ''repairs or for reconstruction''

Report available to us has it that the operators were even of the opinion that repairs of the runway could be carried out between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. while flight operations could take place during the day. The airline chief said Gatwick airport in the UK, which like Abuja airport has only one runway, did not shut down when repairs were carried out on its runway. This is despite that Gatwick has more than 10 times the volume of air traffic that the Abuja airport has, he said.

Policies of this magnitude are made considering the economic effect on the country and the city. Now, after all the said and done, especially when you have a president who does not have an iota of economic idea of what such a policy could cost the entire nation, the airport is bill to be closed on the 6th March, even without reaching an agreement with the major airline operator of the airport.   

And now as we speak, foreign Airlines have notified the Nigerian federal government of their unwillingness to operate from Kaduna airport which Rotimi Amaechi designated as annex of the Abuja airport under lock and key.

The foreign airlines had earlier told the Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, during the stakeholders meeting the minister called in Abuja to address all issues relating to the proposed closure, that they will not operate from Kaduna Airport due to security issues in Kaduna State.

Despite the government frantic efforts to allay the fears of the airlines, British Airways has just notified the federal government that it will not operate from the Kaduna Airport during the closure of the Abuja Airport, likewise other airlines like South African Airways, SAA, Lufthansa, KLM-Air France had earlier said they would not operate from Kaduna due to safety and security challenges.

British Airways Country Manager, Mr. Kola Olayinka, had said the airline plans to assess its best options for its customers during the closure period of the runway.

Olayinka said, “I can confirm that BA will not be operating to Kaduna during the planned closure of the Abuja Airport. “Many factors were considered before this decision was reached, major ones are concerned about the safety and security of our passengers as well as difficulties around some key operational issues. We are currently evaluating all options for our customers planning to travel at that time and we will be reaching out directly to them for information about their trip”.

He further explained that catering services as well as “adequate technology were not in Kaduna including simple technologies like the Common User Terminal Equipment among others”.

South African Airways has reportedly written a letter, signed by the acting chief commercial officer, SAA, Mr. Aaron Munetsi, to the minister of state for aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika informing him that it would cease flight operations to Abuja on March 6, 2017, days before the closure of the airport. With fatisticinfo.com.