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Saturday, 11 March 2017

Airlines cancel 4,300 flights to Kaduna airport

About 4, 300 out of the 8,694 flights to and from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja in the next six weeks may have been cancelled following the diversion of flights to the Kaduna International Airport.

While seven out of the eight international airlines plying the Abuja airport have suspended flights to the Kaduna airport, it was revealed that most local airlines have reduced their flights by 50 per cent.

The Federal Government had on Wednesday closed the NAIA, the country’s second busiest airport, for six weeks to repair its runway and diverted the airport’s operations to the Kaduna airport, which is about two hours drive from Abuja.

With the development, it was learnt that about 50 per cent of the number of flights operated from NAIA on the average have been affected as airlines have been forced to opt for skeletal operations.

It was learnt that about 14,300 passengers used the Abuja airport daily, while an average of about 207 flights landed or left the facility every day.

And for the six-week period that the Abuja airport will be shut for repairs, operators in the aviation sector said about 605,000 passengers would have been airlifted, but noted that this number would definitely be reduced by 50 per cent as many airlines are going to cut down the number of flights to Kaduna.

This, according to them, is because the traffic at the Kaduna airport cannot be compared to what obtained at the Abuja airport, adding that passengers were not showing enough willingness to use the Kaduna airport yet.

For instance, Chairman, Movement Committee from Abuja to Kaduna, who doubles as the Chairman, Skypower Express, Capt. Mohammed Joji, said, “According to our statistics, we are supposed to have about 14,520 passengers, about 207 flights with eight foreign airlines and eight domestic airlines. These are the numbers that went to Abuja.”

But out of the eight international airlines, only Ethiopian Airlines is using the Kaduna airport.

Meanwhile, the 207 aircraft movement (comprising arrivals and departures) that would have been handled daily at the airport would add up to 8,694 flights for the six weeks period (42 days) that NAIA will be closed.

Therefore, the expected 50 per cent reduction in the number of flights that will use the Kaduna airport as an alternative to the NAIA will cut the 8,694 flights down to 4,347. This also means that about half of 605,000 passengers (300,000 passengers) will not be airlifted.

Aside from the refusal by many foreign airlines to use the Kaduna airport as an alternative to the NAIA, it was also learnt that domestic airlines would reduce their frequencies to the alternative airport during the six weeks period.

Culled from ThePunch

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