{"id":56707,"date":"2017-03-11T06:00:35","date_gmt":"2017-03-11T05:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=56707"},"modified":"2017-03-11T06:00:35","modified_gmt":"2017-03-11T05:00:35","slug":"goodbye-abv-abuja-international-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/goodbye-abv-abuja-international-airport\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye ABV (Abuja International Airport)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>See You 6 Weeks or 6 Months, Subject\u00a0to\u2026.<\/h3>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Travel in time to the 20th of April 2017, a day after the expected completion and commissioning of the newly refurbished Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja (ABV).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">I am guessing you just heaved a sigh of relief; you no longer have to embark on the stressful routine of traveling first to Kaduna only to begin the journey to your primary destination. You may now return to having privileges once again as your favorite airlines\u200a\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2017-02-02\/lufthansa-to-suspend-flights-to-abuja-while-airport-is-closed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u200aLufthansa, British Airways and others that have refused to take the risk of operating from the Kaduna Airport<\/a> are back again. It is easier to picture this beautiful sunny Thursday with vanilla clear skies than to figure how.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The Federal Government initially announced plans to close the ABV in January with immediate resistance from the Nigerian Senate. News headlines read <em>\u201cSenate Kicks Against Planned Abuja Airport Closure\u201d<\/em> but what is not new to us is that this organ of government generally speaks quicker than it considers; the relevant stakeholders were formally invited after the faux outrage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Abracadabra, the senate acquiesced to the insistence of the executive branch that the ABV must be shut down or nothing. This decision was against the recommendations by the Nigerian Society of Engineers\u200a\u2014\u200athe apex body of professionals in the country. They held the following opinion:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-size: large;\">\u201cThe runway could be reconstructed without closing the airport using segmented approach and known safety risk management procedures in line with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) guidelines. Aircraft of B737 and below can therefore use part of the runway while work is going on at the other part.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-size: large;\">\u201cThe taxi way should be upgraded to serve as a runway for aircraft of B737 and below. The appropriate study to confirm this can be carried out for visibility to be assured. This has been tried elsewhere in the world. For example, Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom. Bigger international flights can be connected to Lagos, Kaduna and Kano and other international airport and then an air shuttle can be connected to Abuja. In the long term, the NSE is recommending that action be immediately commenced on the construction of a second runway at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">To some, this should make sense and to me it makes even more sense\u200a\u2014\u200athere is an amount of 1.5bn to be spent <em>(shared) <\/em>on the logistics of closing the Airport.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Operations at the ABV will resume after 6 weeks, at least that is what we have been told but if only I could swear, I would, that I read \u201c6 months\u201d on the Associated Press website though it might have be a typo. <a href=\"http:\/\/bigstory.ap.org\/article\/53d2bc1825424abaa1a357688a798a3e\/nigeria-wants-close-airport-capital-runway-repairs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">If you are in doubt, read it here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Julius Berger Plc, the German construction company contracted to carry out the repair work has promised through the firm\u2019s chief executive, Mr. Goetsch, that the project will be concluded within 6 weeks, and of note is that he also offered a caveat: <em>\u201cThis is subject to the fulfillment of the obligation of all stakeholders.\u201d<\/em> The question remains what the probability is for these stakeholders to act differently (fulfilling their obligations) this time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">When my plane touches down at the ABV 20th of April 2017, I might agree that Change was my co-passenger and it has finally arrived!<\/span><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>See You 6 Weeks or 6 Months, Subject\u00a0to\u2026. Travel in time to the 20th of April 2017, a day after the expected completion and commissioning of the newly refurbished Nnamdi&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Goodbye ABV (Abuja International Airport) - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/goodbye-abv-abuja-international-airport\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Goodbye ABV (Abuja International Airport) - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"See You 6 Weeks or 6 Months, Subject\u00a0to\u2026. 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