Kaduna airport records 43,000 passengers in 11 days

• FG deploys tight security on Abuja-Kaduna highway
• NCAA fines foreign airline N9.5m for violating airspace rules

More than 43,000 passengers passed through the Kaduna Airport in its first 11 days of operations as the alternative to the Abuja Airport, according to the latest data by the Federal Government Coordinating Committee on the management of the Airport repair.

A Presidency official yesterday disclosed that this is 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.

During this period, about 10,000 passengers took advantage of the free bus shuttle organised by the Federal Government for passengers between the Abuja and Kaduna Airports.

According to the report, the Federal Government’s Coordinating Committee, comprising senior officials of the Ministry of Aviation, its parastatals, whose chairman is the Minister of State Aviation, Hadi Sirika, and has been meeting weekly to review operations, collate statistics, and implement internal and external feedback.

In its latest report, the Committee also 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 operations on Wednesday, March 8, 2017, to enable the reconstruction of the entire runway. Meanwhile, the NCAA yesterday fined Lyxor International N9.5 million for violating airspace rules.

According to the aviation sector regulator, the non–schedule general aviation airline allegedly over stayed in Nigeria, thereby violating the terms of its approved flight clearances for non–scheduled international air services.

The Guardian learnt that the sanction was to send a strong message to other international airlines that are in the habit of violating applicable rules.

It was gathered that NCAA’s Aviation Safety Inspectors (ASI) during a routine Ramp Inspection of the airline’s Bombardier Challenger CL605 aircraft on February 16, 2017, found it culpable for the infraction.