The rehabilitation of the Benin Airport originally billed to be completed in three weeks has entered its third month with no sure date of finishing and putting the airport back to use and already complaints are rife among air passengers who berate the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in charge for the delay of the project.
Some of them who spoke with LEADERSHIP at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, yesterday, said that they had to use the air strip at Osunbi (Warri) or Asaba Airport and start coming back by road to Benin City.
The FAAN on Friday, June 19, 2015, shut the Benin Airport to flight operations from June 20 to July 10 to facilitate rehabilitation work on its runway and advised that the Asaba Airport and the Osubi Airstrip, Warri, could be used as alternatives to the Benin Airport.
According to the air passengers, journeying back by land from Asaba or Warri to Benin makes the flight from Lagos meaningless. A telecommunications engineer, Mr Kunle Abiodun, said that it does not make any sense flying to Asaba or Warri and then journeying back to Benin by land.
He said, “Honestly, many times I don’t bother flying when I am going to Benin because it takes about three and half hours to get from Lagos to Benin and about one and half hours from Asaba to Benin. So it doesn’t make any financial sense to buy a ticket for over N20,000 just to fly to Asaba and then spend another one and half hours by land before getting to Benin.”
For another telecoms expert, flights to Asaba or Warri when coming to Benin is rewarding only to people coming from very far distances, such as the North Eastern and North Western parts of the country.
He said, “If one is flying from Kano, Sokoto or Maiduguri, yes, it makes much sense using the Benin Airport. However, we should task the government or the contractor, whose fault it is that the repair of the runway is taking too long. How bad was it before they decided to repair it?”
The FAAN’s spokesman, Mr Yakubu Dati, had earlier told LEADERSHIP that the project was being hampered by the frequent rain in Benin.
“The contractor is working, but the rain has been the problem. There has been very frequent rain in that area all these months,” he said.
The FAAN’s managing director, Mr Saleh Dunoma, had last month, toured the airport where he tasked the contractors handling the project, McZoll Resources, to adhere strictly to specification and standards. He also charged them on timely delivery of the project. But more than one month later, the airport has yet to be ready for operation.
“The runway rehabilitation work is part of a routine maintenance programme designed by the authority to ensure that airport runways and other ancillary facilities do not fall below standards recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO),” Dunoma said.
The FAAN on Friday, June 19, 2015, shut the Benin Airport to flight operations from June 20 to July 10 to facilitate rehabilitation work on its runway and advised that the Asaba Airport and the Osubi Airstrip, Warri, could be used as alternatives to the Benin Airport.
According to the air passengers, journeying back by land from Asaba or Warri to Benin makes the flight from Lagos meaningless. A telecommunications engineer, Mr Kunle Abiodun, said that it does not make any sense flying to Asaba or Warri and then journeying back to Benin by land.
He said, “Honestly, many times I don’t bother flying when I am going to Benin because it takes about three and half hours to get from Lagos to Benin and about one and half hours from Asaba to Benin. So it doesn’t make any financial sense to buy a ticket for over N20,000 just to fly to Asaba and then spend another one and half hours by land before getting to Benin.”
For another telecoms expert, flights to Asaba or Warri when coming to Benin is rewarding only to people coming from very far distances, such as the North Eastern and North Western parts of the country.
He said, “If one is flying from Kano, Sokoto or Maiduguri, yes, it makes much sense using the Benin Airport. However, we should task the government or the contractor, whose fault it is that the repair of the runway is taking too long. How bad was it before they decided to repair it?”
The FAAN’s spokesman, Mr Yakubu Dati, had earlier told LEADERSHIP that the project was being hampered by the frequent rain in Benin.
“The contractor is working, but the rain has been the problem. There has been very frequent rain in that area all these months,” he said.
The FAAN’s managing director, Mr Saleh Dunoma, had last month, toured the airport where he tasked the contractors handling the project, McZoll Resources, to adhere strictly to specification and standards. He also charged them on timely delivery of the project. But more than one month later, the airport has yet to be ready for operation.
“The runway rehabilitation work is part of a routine maintenance programme designed by the authority to ensure that airport runways and other ancillary facilities do not fall below standards recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO),” Dunoma said.
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