‘Why foreign airlines shun Kaduna Airport’- Demuren

The former Director General/CEO of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Arnold Demuren, has said that The Federal Government should commit additional funds into the construction of a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) Abuja.Demuren who stated this in an interview with Daily said a second runway remains the best panacea that would resolve the challenge of having to shut down the NAIS and diverting traffic to Kaduna Airport anytime major repair works have to be done at the Abuja airport. He also explained that most foreign airlines had backed out of flying into the Kaduna Airport purely because such a venture would yield less financial dividends to them.Last week Wednesday, a Boeing 787 aircraft operated by Ethiopian Airlines and carrying 50 passengers touched down at the Kaduna International Airport at about 11.30am, thus signaling the commencement of scheduled commercial international flight operations at the airport. Some local carriers like Dana Air, Medview Airlines, and Air Peace followed suit.However, most foreign carriers like British Airways, AirFrance -KLM, Lufthansa and South African Airways that usually flew into the Abuja airport had refused to fly into the Kaduna airport in line with government directive. Trying to understand the decision of these airlines in not using the airport, Demuren said that “We may find it difficult to get foreign airlines involved in schedule operations to go to Kaduna because that’s is purely a corporate decision”He also explained that in recent years, foreign airlines had scaled down their flight frequencies into Abuja airport with some of them even exiting the route. “I am not sure we can force them to go to Kaduna airport because even Abuja airport traffic has dropped for foreign airlines”, he said.