Ethiopian Airline heralds re-opening of Abuja airport

After the scheduled due diligence on the ongoing rehabilitation at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja, on Tuesday by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the regulator has declared the airport safe and ready for commercial flight operations.

The opening of the airport was heralded by an inaugural flight by Ethiopian Airlines with its latest Airplane, the Airbus A350-900, which treated to a water canon display to it to the airport.

Director General of the NCAA, Capt. Muktar Usman whon spoke to newsmen, said, ”Well as you can see, we have just done the final inspection of the runway rehabilitation and reconstruction of Abuja International Airport. It is done and it is quite satisfactory. We inspected yesterday and we made some observations but the findings that we found were not safety critical and today we found that they have been rectified” Capt. Muktar declared.

Read also:  FG reduces documentation bottlenecks for import, export

“So, the airport, the runway is very ready to accept flight operations safely. By this we are declaring that the airport and its runway are quite operational at the time that has been determined as the official opening of this airport” he assured.

He categorically affirmed that “the NCAA has carried out the inspection and we have confirmed that the job has been done quite satisfactorily in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Standard and recommended practices.”

“The normal thing is to inform the aviation world through what we call, Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) and that has been done and all aviators now know the airport is ready for reopening”.

On calibration he said, “nothing has been tampered with as far as the instrument landing system is concerned and everything is in calibration. Calibrations are normally scheduled and very soon this airport will also be calibrated along with other airports. It is not as if there is need for recalibration because nothing has been distorted. It will be normal routine calibration which will be applicable to other airports that are due for recalibration.”

The Abuja airport was closed on March 8, 2017 for runway repairs, and air traffic was diverted to the Kaduna International Airport.‎ The six weeks closure is expected to terminate on the 18th of April and the runway opened to traffic on the 19th April.

By Akin Obakeye….

 

 

 

RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears

Click here to download the Ripples Nigeria App for latest updates

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now