NANTA canvasses second runway for Abuja airport

The National President of National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), Mr Bankole Bernard, has called for the commencement of the Abuja Airport second runway project.

He made the call while speaking with journalists in Lagos, on Abuja Airport runway closure, the issues surrounding the closure and the position of NANTA as a body representing travel agencies in the country.

Bernard stated that NANTA as the umbrella body of travel agencies in Nigeria, has told the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, the second runway project was imperative to avoid a repeat of the situation passengers, airlines, ground handling companies and other stakeholders found themselves today.

The project, he stated, could be achieved either by using the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) or through concession, adding that “the earlier we do just that, the better for Nigerian aviation.”

“We have made our position known to the Minister. We have made him understand that Abuja Airport second runway is inevitable, NANTA will also use every opportunity it has to talk for Abuja Airport to have the second runway,” Bernard said.

The NANTA boss stated that the rehabilitation of the Abuja runway which the Federal Government would start on March 8 was long overdue. With a runway’s life span usually 20 years, he lamented that the Abuja Airport runway was over three decades old, and was therefore not surprised about its state.

According to him, “Abuja Airport runway has been overstretched. NANTA is in total support of the repair. We don’t subscribe to managing the runway in its present state.”

Bernard posited that now that government and stakeholders have agreed to close the runway for rehabilitation, it should take certain steps to cushion the effect of the closure on the airlines and passengers.

One of the steps, the NANTA President stated should be the provision of free shuttle buses from Kaduna Airport to Abuja by the Federal Government to prevent a situation, where air passengers would bear the cost of transporting themselves from Kaduna to Abuja Airport, as the closure was not of their making.

Some of the buses at Abuja Airport, he argued can be deployed for this purpose or in the alternative let the Federal Government lease buses to ferry passengers from Kaduna Airport to Abuja for the six weeks duration of the project.

According to him, “We are recommending that the government should provide a free shuttle for the passengers because it is not the passengers that planned to go to Kaduna, but due to the maintenance of the runway, the passengers have been left with no option than to go to Kaduna. Since there Is no money and the government might not want to incur additional expenses, there are buses used at Abuja airport, some of these buses can be deployed and be used, some of the buses can be leased so as to carry out the assignment for six weeks, it can be outsourced so that some companies will do the service for six weeks for the government.”

He also advocated for the international airlines to operate from Lagos while local carriers would help the foreign carriers to distribute their passengers on arriving in Lagos to Kaduna Airport.

The NANTA boss argued that most of the international airlines operate at night and that none of these carriers would put its crew on the road at night bearing in mind that there is the crisis in Southern Kaduna.

Bernard added that this is very important to forestall a situation where international airlines will stop flying to the Abuja.