The Federal Government has barred airlines from flying into the Maiduguri airport
until March 2014; documents obtained by our correspondent have shown.
According to a Notice to Airmen sent by the Nigerian Airspace Management
Agency to airline operators, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent,
the carriers were told that the airport would no longer be available for
flights until March 2014.
In the NOTAM, which was filed through NAMA’s Aeronautical Information
Services, and sent to some Control Towers across the country, pilots were
informed that the Maiduguri airport was shut during the first week of December
and would not be available until early March next year.
Further investigations by our correspondent revealed that the Federal
Government decided to shut the airport after Boko Haram insurgents destroyed
some equipment belonging to NAMA.
A NAMA source at one of the airports in the North, who confirmed the
development, said it was the agency’s generators that were destroyed by the
Boko Haram sect during the recent attack on the Maiduguri Air Force base.
He said the generators might not be fixed until next year, expressing the
hope that the government would have fixed the situation before the March date
when the airport was expected to be re-opened.
Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, was on December 2 attacked by Boko
Haram insurgents, leading to the death of two military personnel and members of
the sect, and the destruction of three decommissioned military aircraft, two
helicopters and property worth millions of naira.
Owing to the siege, military authorities and the Borno State Government
slammed a 24-hour curfew on the city and its environs.
The attack forced the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria to shut the
Maiduguri airport and airlines hurriedly cancelled their flights to the city.
Arik Air had to cancel its Abuja to Maiduguri morning flight on Monday
following the attack, just as roads leading into the city were closed.
However, the FAAN spokesman, Mr. Yakubu Dati, said on Monday that the
airport had been opened.
He said the Maiduguri airport was just closed for a day following the Boko
Haram attack on the nearby Air Force base and had since been re-opened.
But findings revealed that the airport had yet to be reopened. Arik Air said
it had yet to resume operations to the Maiduguri airport because the airport
was still closed.
Early this year, domestic airlines operating flights into Kano, Maiduguri,
Yola and other volatile cities the North had announced plans to stop flights
into the cities due to security concerns.
The development came a few months after some of the domestic carriers
cancelled night-stops for their crew and aircraft in extremely volatile northern
cities, especially Maiduguri.
The security situation had forced the foreign airlines to stop night stops
at the Abuja airport.
Punch
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