The Federal Government is concluding arrangements to commence airlifting of passengers from the Kaduna Airport to London Airport, in the United Kingdom, vice-versa.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, disclosed this recently during a joint press briefing by the minister and his counterpart in the Information and Culture Ministry, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, at the Kaduna Airport, having conducted journalist round the airport for on-thespot assessment of the level of development so far, since the closure of Abuja airport.
According to Sirika, Medview and AirPeace among others, had already commenced flight operations from and to London. He added that Nigerian carriers were already flying Addis Ababa and East bound destinations.
He said, “We are trying to start a flight out of Kaduna direct to London, using Nigerian carrier, and there are some arrangements with some international airlines. Within the next five days or so we will commence a flight direct to London out of Kaduna and back.
“We are already talking to Nigerian entrepreneurs, we are talking to other international airlines that will provide us with airplane they will use; Ethiopia brought the first equipment for the Boeing 707”, adding that a few other ones had followed suit. The minister also said that plans were underway to begin the construction of the second runway at the Abuja airport, adding that once the project began, it would be completed within a period of 24 months.
He stated, “There are plans to squeeze in the second runway project for the Abuja airport in the 2017 budget, to avoid a repeat of our previous mistakes. ”There will be a second runway in Abuja; hopefully, within the next 24 months, we will have a new runway. There is second runway in Kano; there is second runway in Lagos and there is second runway in Port Harcourt. So, they have second runways. The focus of government now is to have a second runway in Abuja.”
