By Special Reporter.
\nKADUNA AIRPORT RECORDS 43,000 PASSENGERS IN FIRST 11 DAYS OF ABUJA AIRPORT CLOSURE
\n*10,000 passengers take FG’s free bus shuttle between Abuja & Kaduna airports
\n*Tight security reported on Abuja-Kaduna routes-Presidency
\n*Media tour of Abuja airport this week to observe progress of runway repair
\nMore than 43,000 passengers passed through the Kaduna Airport in its first 11 days of operations as the alternative to the Abuja Airport, according to the latest data submitted to the Presidency by the Federal Government Coordinating Committee overseeing the management of the Airport repair, closure and relocation.
\nA presidency official disclosed that this is more than the 41,000 passengers it recorded in the entire first quarter of 2015, and the 21,000 in the first quarter of 2016.
\nAlso, during this period, about 10,000 passengers took advantage of the free Bus Shuttle organized by the Federal Government to transport passengers between the Abuja and Kaduna Airports.
\nThe free Bus Shuttle conveys passengers between Abuja and Kaduna Airports, starting at the Abuja Airport at 6 o\u2019clock in the morning, and at the Kaduna Airport from 8 a.m. The Shuttle takes 3 hours from Airport to Airport, and runs every 30 minutes, until the arrival of the last daily flight in Kaduna.
\nThe Shuttle is in addition to the Federal Government\u2019s free Train Service between Abuja and Kaduna. The two-and-half-hour Train Service departs Abuja\u2019s Idu Station for Kaduna at 6 a.m., 11.55 a.m. and 5.45 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays; and departs Kaduna\u2019s Rigasa Station for Abuja at 9 a.m., 2.50 p.m. and 8.40 p.m.
\nAccording to the report, the Federal Government\u2019s Coordinating Committee, comprising senior officials of the Ministry of Aviation, its parastatals (FAAN, NCAA, NAMA, AIB), and security and emergency agencies (Police, FRSC, DSS, NEMA), is chaired by the Minister of State Aviation, Hadi Sirika, and has been meeting weekly to review operations, collate statistics, and implement internal and external feedback.
\nAlso in its latest report, the Committee highlighted the deployment of 173 Police Patrol Vehicles, and 2,400 police personnel \u2013 drawn from the Police Mobile Force, Counter Terrorism Unit, Special Anti-Robbery Squad, and others \u2013 along the Abuja-Kaduna Highway and the Abuja-Kaduna Rail Line.
\nEqually deployed are 30 Police Motorcycles along the rail tracks, 2 Patrol Helicopters along the rail and road routes, and 10 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) at strategic points on the routes, including the Airports and Train Stations.
\nThe Abuja Airport runway was closed for operations on Wednesday March 8, 2017, to enable the reconstruction of the entire runway. Originally constructed in 1982, the runway has, until now, seen no repair works, despite the fact that it was built to last no more than 25 years. The reconstruction, being carried out by Julius Berger Nigeria Limited, has since commenced, and is now in its third week \u2013 halfway into the planned six weeks.
\n\u201cThe reconstruction is going according to schedule, and we are fully confident that the Abuja Airport will reopen after six weeks, as planned,\u201d said a top presidency official involved in the presidential supervision of the airport closure and oversight, adding that the Aviation Minister of State Hadi Sirika, in particular has been working diligently to minimize the inconvenience caused by the closure.
\nAfter the Abuja Airport reopens for operations on April 19, upgrade works on the runway will continue for another 18 weeks. This second phase of upgrade works on the runway will be carried out at night, with no disruption to flight schedules, the Presidency official further disclosed.
\nThe source added that a media tour to allow reporters observe and assess the progress on the Abuja Airport runway repair will hold this week, as the repair is about its mid-point on Weenesday.
\nThe FG’s Coordinating Committee has launched a series of Customer Engagement initiatives to enable passengers and travellers affected by the closure get up-to-date information and updates. These include a Call Center (open 7am to 10pm Mondays to Fridays and 10am to 4pm Saturdays and Sundays), a website (AbujaAirportClosure.info), and a Twitter handle (@ABVClosure).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Special Reporter. KADUNA AIRPORT RECORDS 43,000 PASSENGERS IN FIRST 11 DAYS OF ABUJA AIRPORT CLOSURE *10,000 passengers take FG’s free bus shuttle between Abuja & Kaduna airports *Tight security reported on Abuja-Kaduna routes-Presidency *Media tour of Abuja airport this week to observe progress of runway repair More than 43,000 passengers passed through the Kaduna […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}