As Businesses Count Losses at Abuja Airport, in Kaduna, Trade is Booming
Following the closure of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, last Tuesday, for rehabilitation, diverted flight operations have since commenced at the Kaduna Airport. The development has been influencing business activities, flight operations and
Infrastructure challenges, limited parking spaces both for aircraft and for cars and unfinished work at the passenger terminal were what characterised the first day Kaduna operated as alternative international airport to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. Nevertheless, the Kaduna airport came alive, bustling with activities as diverted flight operations from Abuja commenced there last Wednesday.
The first day witnessed departure and arrival hall filled by more government officials than passengers, just as the Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, and other concerned top government officials celebrated the landing of Ethiopia Airlines Dreamliner.
The Ethiopian airlines aircraft, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, landed at the airport at about 11:35am and was welcomed with the ceremonial water shower, flagging off flight operations that are expected to last for six weeks.
Azman Air, a domestic carrier, also landed at about 11:45am with passengers from Lagos, opening a floodgate of activities at the airport.
Sirika and top functionaries in the aviation ministry were on ground to welcome passengers
Aviation workers, representatives of businesses, security personnel had mobilised to the airport while security and other paramilitary outfits controlling traffic had been deployed to strategic locations from Kaduna metropolis to the airport.
By 10:00am, the remodelled terminal, which according to Sirika, is about 95 per cent completed, was a beehive of activities.
The Captain of the Ethiopian Air flight, which landed with 270 passengers and crew, while exchanging views with the minister, described the runway as “perfect”, adding that the instrument landing system (ILS) is “great.”
Although Nigerian airlines and international carriers agreed that for safety reasons the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja ought to be closed so that rehabilitation work could be done on the runway, but one week to March 8, 2017, when the airport would be shut down, airlines had not completed plans to move their Abuja operations to Kaduna, the alternative airport.
But in the last two days to the historic date, domestic carriers jostled to surpass one another with physical movement to the airport. Amid infrastructural limitations, they had to adjust and become ingenious in improvising to adapt to the realities of an upgraded airport.
The federal government had impressed it on both domestic and foreign airlines that they should continue their operation to Abuja by using the alternative airport and had dismissed the fears of foreign airlines about insecurity on the Abuja-Kaduna highway.
Witnessing events as they unfold at the Kaduna airport, the aviation minister told journalists that, ‘doubting Thomases’ had been proved wrong, expressing the hope that those who had declined to fly to Kaduna will reconsider their stand.
He restated the determination of the federal government to ensure that the six-week temporary closure of the Abuja airport is not extended.
“By the grace of God, six weeks will be six weeks and I assure you that at the end of the six weeks, the airport in Abuja would be reopened.”
Some passengers who spoke to THISDAY said they were impressed with the arrangements put in place to facilitate easy movement of passengers going to Abuja. Miss Hannah Gerry, from Northern Ireland, who came in with the flight, said it was great to land in Kaduna.
“The airport is looking great, I am going to Abuja and I am getting picked up, so it is quiet convenient,” she said
Another passenger, Engr. Pius Ogoma, a businessman who flew in from Addis Ababa, said he had no problem flying to Kaduna. He added that his initial fear was traveling by road to Abuja, saying that such fears had been allayed as a result of adequate security on the Abuja Kaduna road and the provision of shuttle bus services to Abuja.
Over 20 buses comprising luxury and 14-seater buses had been provided following an arrangement between Chisco Transport Company and Federal Airport Authority (FAAN). Each of the buses plying the road is accompanied by armed police escort.
Coordinating Chairman of Movement Committee from Abuja to Kaduna, Captain Mohammed Joji, disclosed that provisions had been made to receive about 14,300 passengers daily, the same number of passenger traffic at the Abuja Airport.
Making reference to statistics from the Abuja airport, Joji said, “Looking at total movement with eight foreign airlines and eight domestic airlines, we should have about 207 flights coming to Kaduna in the long run because these are the numbers that go to Abuja and we hope they will come to Kaduna eventually.
“So we have made provision for 14,300 passengers and 207 flights minimum. For the six weeks period, it is 605,000 passengers and in fact, the exact figure for daily passengers is 14,520.”
He said all efforts were being made to address any hitches being faced by passengers and flight operators.
“What we are doing now is our best. It is the beginning, it is not going to be 100 per cent perfect. There must be some hitches here and there. These hitches are minor issues within the ambit of our grip, which could be addressed within a given time.
Reacting to the slow pace of screening by security personnel at the terminal, Joji said too much delay at security checks will by extension, delay the flights.
“It will cause logjam in facilitation and the flight will be delayed. So we are asking them to be more proactive; they should bring experienced people nationwide to train those that will be operating from here. This is a virgin airport, as far as we are concerned, everything is fine, but some hitches has to be here and there and people must tolerate that and bear with us,” he said.
Positive Impact
However, the flight diversion has impacted positively on business in Kaduna, especially hoteliers, taxi drivers and restaurant operators.
Emmanuel Sylvester Ameh, a taxi driver operating at the airport, told THISDAY in an interview that the diversion to Kaduna was an intervention from God.
According to him, for a long time, he has not been able to meet the basic needs of his family because of lack of patronage but now things are beginning to pick up.
“Before now, I will wait for six days before I get a passenger because there were very few flights coming to Kaduna and when they come, only one or two passengers will take a taxi” he said.
Ameh, who noted that, on the first day of the flight diversion, over 20 passengers patronised taxi operators, enthused that,“this is a divine intervention from God and it is a beginning of good things to come in the next six weeks.”
THISDAY investigation revealed that hotels in the city are recording unprecedented boom with some of them already fully booked for three weeks.
For instance, Business Manager of Asaa Pyramid Hotel, Mr. Faisal Abdullahi, told THISDAY in an interview that, the hotel had been witnessing influx of people since the beginning of diverted flight operations to Kaduna.
“Although we have been enjoying patronage even before now, we are witnessing a stream of guests trooping in.
At the moment, our hotel has been fully booked for the next three weeks by embassies, airlines, the NNPC, NLNG, Total, Oando, etc.,” he said.
Also, the Business Manager of Hotel 17, Franklyn Anukwu, said the hotel had been fully booked for the next two weeks. He said the hotel was striving to cope with the large number of guests.
Optimism/Pessimism
Joji, a charter operator and former Managing Director of Nigeria Airways Limited, whose operation is based in Kaduna, expressed disappointment with foreign airlines, many of which gave incessant kidnapping on the Abuja-Kaduna highway as the reasons why they would not move to Kaduna.
Joji told THISDAY recently in Kaduna that all the facilities necessary for seamless flight operation has been provided in Kaduna and dismissed the kidnap fears, saying that kidnapping happens everywhere in Nigeria.
THISDAY spoke to some domestic carriers who seemed enthusiastic about the move to Kaduna to ensure that Abuja runway was rehabilitated.
The Chief Executive Officer of Medview Airline PLC, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, told THISDAY at the Kaduna airport on Thursday that government had taken a critical decision to move flight operations to Kaduna from Abuja in order to comprehensively repair the Abuja airport runway.
“We commend the federal government and the Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika for the work they have done in this airport within a short time. It is our responsibility to support government because with our support the set objective will be realised. This is why we have come here and we are operating fully here and we were doing in Abuja,” he said.
But while domestic carriers have positive disposition towards the temporary move, which would last only six weeks, majority of international airlines have cancelled their flights to Abuja until the reopening of the airport, so they would not operate to Kaduna airport.
Reports had indicated that British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France and South African Airways declined government’s suggestion to divert their flights to Kaduna, but some of the airlines are now reconsidering their refusal to operate to Kaduna airport. For instance, following an inspection of the refurbished Kaduna airport, airlines like Lufthansa have expressed its willingness to operate to Kaduna.
Kaduna’s attractiveness, the airlines had indicated, dimmed on February 23, when two German archaeologists were kidnapped and released days later in a village near the Federal Capital Territory.
Spokesman of the international airlines, Kingsley Nwokoma, had told THISDAY that there were certain reasons why the foreign carriers would not operate to Kaduna airport.