Ime Akpan
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said that Turkish Airlines and Emirates have indicated their readiness to commence scheduled flights from the newly commissioned Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA), Omagwa and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, respectively.
While the two foreign carriers begin their operations in June, Air Peace, on the other hand, is set to start direct flights to Dubai from PHIA from April 2019.
Spokeswoman for FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu who disclosed this in an interview in Lagos said the move is aimed at putting the newly commissioned terminals at the PHIA and NAIA into maximum as well as decongesting the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
“Turkish Airlines and Emirates would soon commence direct flight to their bases from the new Port Harcourt International Airport terminal. We want to appeal to members of the public that they don’t have to come from Port Harcourt or any part of the east to fly out of the country.
“They can easily go to Port Harcourt to fly. Also, as you know, Abuja Airport new terminal too has opened and Emirates would be starting from the terminal from June. We are expecting all the international airlines to start operating also from Abuja Airport.
“Apart from the foreign airlines, Air Peace would also commence direct flight operations to Accra from Abuja, while scheduled flights between Port Harcourt and Dubai operations of the airline would commence in April this year.
“We want to encourage our passengers that they don’t all have to come to Lagos even though we know Lagos is the commercial nerve of the country and the airport is the hub, but passengers can travel from Abuja and Port Harcourt airports to connect to their destinations so that we can de-congest Lagos airport,” she said.
She said while it had become necessary to decongest the Lagos Airport, the airport would still remain the hub in Nigeria.
She added that rather concentrating all their operations in Lagos, airlines could avail themselves of the state-of-the-art facilities in other aerodromes across the country, stressing that FAAN was determined to improve flying experience of air travellers within the country.
Already, she said Cronos Air operates three weekly frequencies; Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays from PHIA, while Lufthansa Airlines flies four times weekly; Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from the same airport.
Besides, she said Air France operates five weekly flights; Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesday, Fridays and Sundays.
She added that Turkish Air would four weekly flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, starting from June 25, 2019 from PHIA.
Commenting on the delay for the completion and unveiling of the new terminal building at the Lagos Airport, Yakubu attributed it to many factors but not limiting to the issues of location of the terminal and late takeoff of construction.
She also said the terminal at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) with a yearly traffic of five million passengers would be launched in two months’ time while Lagos will come thereafter.
“Lagos airport did not take off early because of the issue of citing of the new terminal. Where we have it now is not the original site, it has come up with a lot of issues – connectivity to the air side and the runway and others. But we are assuring our passengers that once Kano is commissioned, the next airport would be Lagos,” she said.
Both terminals are part of the US$ 600 million Chinese and Nigerian counter funded terminal. Two others, PHIA and NAIA), Abuja have been delivered.
