The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies, NANTA, weekend supported the rejection of Kaduna Airport as an alternate airport by foreign airlines operating in Nigeria following the decision of the government to close Abuja airport runway for six weeks for repair works. The association said the foreign carriers should be given the option of flying the Abuja passengers to Lagos and allowing the domestic airlines to do the distribution of the passengers to Kaduna airport.
The President of NANTA, Mr. Bankole Bernard made the position of the body known while briefing aviation reporter in Lagos. He said the government should not compel the foreign carriers to operate from Kaduna airport as they could decide to withdraw their aircraft from that route and stop operating the flight for the six weeks the repair works will last and this might cause more hardship for the passengers.
According to Bernard, “As things are now, it will not augur well asking the international carriers to go to Kaduna, some of them have expressed their displeasure with the idea of going to Kaduna.So for us not to experience airlines withdrawing from Nigeria because once they take this aircraft away from Nigeria, it might be difficult bringing them back and that will lead to lesser inventory or choice of traveling for us which will lead to increase in the cost of traveling for us.” “So we are recommending that the government can direct all the international airlines to operate from Lagos within that six weeks that the Abuja runway will be under renovation and that will give our local carriers the opportunity to partner with the international carriers by moving their passengers from Lagos to Kaduna and there they get a free shuttle to Abuja.
We think this will work well and the international carriers will still stay and render the same services they have been doing without increasing their fares.” “Yes when It was first mentioned that Kaduna airport will be used as alternate airport to Abuja, what came to mind immediately was the civil unrest in Kaduna and what is going to happen to the lives of passengers transiting from Kaduna to Abuja knowing fully well that this is a highway and people can easily be harmed, though the minister made us understand that a lot of preparations have been made, even at that, a lot of us are still not convinced knowing fully well that in Nigeria there is always a last-minute failure in some of these things”.
“For some of us, we have some issues to raise with the minister. We are settled with the fact that the runway is long overdue, the lifespan of a runway is actually supposed to be for 20years and as it stand today, we are in the 34th year of the existence of that runway, so you will agree with me that it has even spent more than enough of its lifespan. It can put the life of passengers at risk because if an aircraft land on it, what we have been experiencing in the last few months is damage to the aircraft. ” the NANTA president said.
“It might lead to a situation where it will lead to further disaster and we don’t want that to happen, so we are in support of total repairs and not patching of the surface of the runway, but total repairs. So the inconveniences are something we all have to bear. For us in NANTA, we believe the government should take certain steps into consideration,” the NANTA president said. One of those steps he said is for the minister to embark on the implementation and construction of a second runway immediately so that such situation that will warrant the closure of Abuja airport will not arise again. He added that the construction of a second runway for Abuja airport can be done on Public, Private Partnership, PPP arrangement or the government can take a loan to do that.