He also said that NCAA is working closely with FAAN on the certification of the Port Harcourt International Airport,Omagwa, Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu and the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano and highlighted on Port Harcourt particularly.
He said that there were insinuations from certain quarters on the Port Harcourt Airport but many were not accurate but still appreciated the messages to keep the CAA on its toes but urged stakeholders to clarify and update their knowledge on issues before making certain remarks.
He said,”issue of airport certification: Lagos and Abuja were certified and we are working with FAAN on recertification and three others, there has been some progress. The initial certification of Lagos and Abuja were provisional based on understanding that they needed to close some gaps,they’ve closed some gaps, some have not been closed and new gaps have come so we are working closely with the management of FAAN to close those gaps so that the certification process can be concluded as soon as possible.
The DG acknowledged the humongous cost of these certification stressing,” Some of the projects they have to do are quite capital intensive but we are working with them and are getting some kind of assistance from the ministry to deal with some of the heavy items.
“Apart from that we are also talking about initial certification of PH, Enugu, Kano airports, all the international airports have to be certified so it is quite a big project, the certification of five airports, three initial and two recertification and its quite huge but hopefully we’d get this done as soon as possible.
On one of the complaints about the Port Harcourt Airport particularly Nuhu said, “I see a report that herds of cows go to the airport, well, last issue we heard of these cows is 16 years ago, since then officially NCAA has not had any report and one of the things I did mention is that Port Harcourt airport is one up for certification and I told you some of the projects are capital intensive.
“One of the project is you find that some of the fences at Port Harcourt are porous and it’s one of the things we are working on for the recertification, it is an ongoing thing. wed be working with FAAN on that, it is one of the things that must be done for recertification.
“So yes,there is still a risk of wild life coming on the runway and risk assessment has been done. ”
