TheCable

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has notified airlines and passengers that the runway at Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu will be closed for major repairs from August 24.

Henrietta Yakubu, FAAN’s corporate affairs manager, made this known in a statement issued in Lagos on Saturday.

NAN reports that the airport closure is coming three months after Hadi Sirika, the immediate past minister of state for aviation, said the airport would be closed down over the state of the runway.

Sirika had said that the airport would be degraded for international operations because the runway length is not ideal for such operations.

In Saturday’s statement, Yakubu said the date for reopening would be communicated in due course.

Meanwhile, the management of Air Peace has commended the federal government for the decision to close the Enugu International Airport for proper repair and maintenance of the airport’s runway.

Allen Onyema, Air Peace chairman, told journalists on Saturday that the runway had been giving stakeholders serious safety concerns.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Air Peace is fully and totally in support of this decision. Though the decision will affect the traveling public,” he said.

“However, the airline, place the safety of the flying public, our crew and equipment above any commercial benefits.

“The government should go all out to put everything in place, within the period of the closure, that will make the airport rank among the best international airports in the country.

“We plead with the federal government to make the airport a 24 hours flight operations airport by improving the night landing infrastructure.”

Onyeama commended President Mohammadu Buhari for his resolve to correct the infrastructural decay affecting the industry.