4,300 flights cancelled as airlines, passengers shun Kaduna airport

- Operators say passengers are not willing to use Kaduna airport even after the government closed the Abuja Airport for repairs

- Most local airlines have reduced their flights by 50 per cent and out of the eight international airlines, only Ethiopian Airlines is using the Kaduna airport

The Punch is reporting that 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.

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This, the report said, follows the diversion of flights to the Kaduna International Airport which the airlines have a grouse with.

It is said that seven out of the eight international airlines plying the Abuja airport have suspended flights to the Kaduna airport while investigations also revealed that most local airlines have reduced their flights by 50 per cent.

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 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.

They said 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.

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Abuja Airport Manager for Azman Air, Abdullahi Saroke, told our correspondent that local carriers would definitely cut down their flight services to the Kaduna airport.

He said: “Definitely what you are getting out of Abuja cannot be got out of Kaduna. For instance, in Abuja we operate two flights from the NAIA to Lagos. For airlines that have the highest frequency like Dana, Medview, and Air Peace, who carry out about six to seven flights daily, I don’t foresee such kind of flight services happening in Kaduna.

“They have to cut down those schedules except they want to be flying empty aircraft up and down. I think for a start, the cut down is going to be by about 50 per cent for airlines to see how the traffic situation will pan out. And I’m sure that that is what is going to happen for now.

“One thing you should know is that the highest traffic days out of or into Abuja have always been Thursdays/Fridays and Sundays/Mondays. These are days when all airlines operate all their schedules out of Abuja to Lagos or from Lagos to Abuja because you have high movement of passengers moving during these days. However, by next week we should be able to considerably understand what the actual situation will look like.”

Meanwhile, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, who arrived in Nigeria on Friday, March 10 at around 8am after about 49 days of vacation in the United Kingdom used the Kaduna Airport where all Abuja Airport flights have been diverted to.

Source: Legit.ng