About 43,000 passengers have passed through the Kaduna Airport in its first 11 days of operations as the alternative airport to that of Abuja, according to data submitted to the Presidency by the Government Coordinating Committee overseeing the management of Abuja Airport repair, closure and rerouting of passengers.
Sources who have working knowledge of the airport repairs said that number of passenger recorded at the Kaduna airport in the 11 days are far 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.
It was also learned that during this past 11 days about 10,000 passengers took advantage of the free Bus Shuttle organised by the Federal Government to move passengers between Abuja and Kaduna Airports. The free Bus Shuttle conveys passengers between Abuja and Kaduna Airports, starting at the Abuja Airport at 6 o’clock 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 flight in Kaduna.
The Shuttle is in addition to the Federal Government’s free Train Service between Abuja and Kaduna. The two-and-half-hour Train Service departs Abuja’s Idu Station for Kaduna at 6 a.m., 11.55 a.m. and 5.45 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays; and departs Kaduna’s Rigasa Station for Abuja at 9 a.m., 2.50 p.m. and 8.40 p.m.
According to the report, the Federal Government’s 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.
The Committee it was gathered highlighted the deployment of 173 Police Patrol Vehicles, and 2,400 police personnel – drawn from the Police Mobile Force, Counter Terrorism Unit, Special Anti-Robbery Squad, and others – along the Abuja-Kaduna Highway and the Abuja-Kaduna Rail Line.
Equally 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.
The Abuja Airport runway was closed for reconstruction of the runway on Wednesday March 8, 2017. Originally constructed in 1982, the runway has, until now, seen no repair works, despite the fact that it was built to last for 25 years. The reconstruction, being carried out by Julius Berger Nigeria Limited, has since commenced, and is now in its third week – halfway into the planned six weeks.
