The Federal Government on Wednesday in Abuja pledged to ensure the delivery of a new international airport in Lagos before Easter celebration next year. The government also promised to deliver a new airport in Kano in December this year as had earlier been done in Abuja and Port Harcourt.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, stated this in an interview with journalists at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in the State House. He said President Muhammadu Buhari had approved counterpart funding for the delivery of the two airports as scheduled. “Mr. President has approved counterpart funding to quickly finish the new Lagos airport and that of Kano. We will by God’s grace complete Kano Airport in December and the new Lagos Airport with that of Enugu before Easter”, he said.
The minister also said the necessity to construct a new airport in Lagos had become compelling, bearing in mind that when the airport was first commissioned in 1980, it was meant to serve only 200,000 people. However, he said the number of passengers using the airport has risen from 200,000 in 1980 to 8 million people today with a number of infrastructures there already collapsed.
He also explained that the plan for the overhaul of the Lagos airport is in two phases, noting that after the delivery of the new airport, the old one will be redesigned and reconstructed in acknowledgement of the growing population of Lagos as well as the attraction that Lagos continues to generate.
