Fifty-four days after the closure of Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu, President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday approved the release of N10 billion Special Intervention Fund for immediate repairs and upgrade of the airport.
Buhari said he “is aware of the central nature of the airport”, which was closed for repairs since August 24, to the socio-economic development of the South-East, as well as of the infrastructure deficits all over the country occasioned by lack of judicious use of available resources in the past, but declared that his administration was working on remedying this situation.
The approval came following a plea by leaders of South East region to President Buhari to declare a state of emergency and deploy contractors to the airport and interstate roads in the region.
The leaders, including serving and former governors, traditional as well as religious leaders, bemoaned the slow pace of work on the airport. They said contrary to earlier promise that the airport would be ready for use in November, indications are that it would not be ready.
They said the poor state of infrastructure in the region has worsened with the closure of the airport on August 24.
The approval is coming 54 days after the airport was closed, and several weeks after Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation, said his ministry had made a special grant request of N10 billion from President Buhari for the completion of reconstruction of the Enugu airport runway, citing structural damages at the airport that necessitated the reconstruction work.
Sirika had also said his ministry had negotiated with the contractor and made payment of the initial bill of quantities for the contract sum and that the presidential grant was required to complete the repairs.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) announced the closure of the airport runway for major repairs and works on the airfield from midnight on August 24, 2019.
In a statement signed by Henrietta Yakubu, its general manager, corporate communication, FAAN said the move was aimed at resolving the existing safety/security concerns to flight operations.
Prior to this approval by Buhari, there had been concerns as to why the Federal Government showed little seriousness with the repairs of Enugu airport, the sixth busiest airport in Nigeria after Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Owerri. In 2018, the Enugu airport processed an average of 273,000 local passengers and 41,000 international passengers, according to FAAN figures.
More than one month after the airport was shut down, BusinessDay onsite visit to the airport showed that work was yet to commence.
Olumide Ohunayo, head research and corporate travel, Zenith Consult and Travel, had wondered why contractors were yet to report at the airport, which is critical as the only international airport in the South-East region of the country.
“As at the time they closed the airport, I expected all the necessary materials to be in place. What was the rush to close it when the contractor was not ready?” Ohunayo had queried.
Sirika had unofficially said the reopening of the airport would happen before Christmas.
BusinessDay checks, however, show that the Enugu airport may not be ready for operations by December.
Experts in the sector share a similar view.
“With these additional constructions which I believe must include taxiways that the runway had none originally, the N10 billon is very reasonable. If Abuja that has taxiways and with no reason to extend the runway took six weeks to repair its runway, we should expect more weeks and possibly six months to reconstruct the Enugu runway, extend it and construct taxiways to bring it to a standard of global practice for an international airport,” John Ojikutu, a member of aviation industry think tank group, Aviation Round Table (ART) and chief executive officer, Centurion Securities, said.
“As a result of the river close to the airport, they need to reclaim some lands to avoid erosion. A lot of works need to be done on the runway. First, the runway has to be extended. Secondly, the surface of the runway has to be strengthened to carry bigger aircraft. Thirdly, a taxiway has to be built and they have to do some land reclaim to avoid erosion,” he said.
Ojikutu explained that the closure was about safety, not politics, and pleaded with the South-East governors to work closely with the minister in the interest of the regular air travellers from their states.
“I have said it several times that the opening of the airport for regular flight operations to heavier aircraft than the runway was built for was political with no safety consideration by whoever in authority then. Enugu runway was built for aircraft in the B737 categories and not for heavier ones like 767, 777 that the Ethiopian Airline is flying into the airport now; that explains why in four years of opening it to such operations, the runway has been repaired twice,” he said.
The Enugu airport closure has since seen airlines diverting traffic to the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, Owerri, Imo State, and Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA) in Rivers State. But frequent travellers to the region who are already feeling the impact of the closure have expressed worry over the delay of the repairs.
There are concerns that Christmas travel on that route would come at great expense. Already, ticket prices to Port Harcourt and Owerri during Christmas season are seeing a slight increase. A one-way Lagos-Owerri or Lagos-Port Harcourt ticket booked as at today for December 24 and 25 sells for N53,000-N55,000 as against N30,000-N35,000 average cost of air ticket.
Aviation experts say the rise in prices of tickets three months before Christmas smells doom for travellers as the prices may increase further by 50-100 percent during yuletide.
IFEOMA OKEKE & TONY AILEMEN, Abuja
