TheCable

At exactly 8:01am on Friday, the Arik aircraft arrived at what was supposed to be an international airport in Port Harcourt, Rivers state. The passengers disembarked and trekked roughly 30 metres to the airport building, coming across grasses, piles of condemned building blocks and greenish structures.

Welcome to the Port Harcourt International Airport, once rated by CNNMoney as the worst in the world.

This is despite the N827 million allocation the airport got in the 2017 budget (outside other huge sums it partly shared with other airports) and N372.2 million it got in the 2016 budget.

On entering the arrival tents — sorry, halls, TheCable reporter was hit with the reality on ground: passengers joining a short queue to end up squeezing themselves into the only two-room toilet available, old structures turned green, a sign of decay as well as stagnant waters and grass within the airport premises.

While sweating from the lack of working air conditioners, passengers also have to carefully dodge the stagnant water around and just about hundred metres down the road, there you have an iron rod serving as the entrance gate, the type usually seen at security outposts in some villages.

Absolutely nothing to show the Port Harcourt airport is an international airport except, of course, for signs like ‘international arrivals’ and ‘international departures’.

Below are some pictures from the airport:

Airport main entrance

A section of the airport with stagnant water

Path leading to the arrival hall

Airport toilet

A section of the airport that houses disposables

Passengers waiting to pick their luggage. The airport staff carry them into the building with themselves!

Security men in front of the arrival hall

A section of the airport still under construction