FG to shut down Enugu airport

The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, said yesterday that the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu would be shut for security reasons. Sirika who disclosed this during the sixth aviation stakeholders’ forum listed some of the reasons for the planned shutdown to include the bad condition of the runway, the landing aids, […]

The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, said yesterday that the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu would be shut for security reasons.

Sirika who disclosed this during the sixth aviation stakeholders’ forum listed some of the reasons for the planned shutdown to include the bad condition of the runway, the landing aids, a market and a free trade zone, among others.

Sirika said the airport would be closed until the state government removes all the encumbrances of flight safety at the airport.

He said the government had contracted Julius Berger to renovate the premier Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) at the project cost of N14bn.

He said the proximity of the Enugu airport to the market which also has an abattoir, exposes it to regular bird strikes, recalling that an Air Peace flight was recently hit by a bird and the aircraft had to make an air return. “The state government kept promising they would remove all these challenges. Enugu may be closed down soon,” he said.