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 submitted to the Presidency by the
Federal Government Coordinating Committee
overseeing the management of the airport repair,
closure and relocation.



A presidency official disclosed that this is more
than the 41,000passengers it recorded in the
entire first quarter of 2015, and the 21,000 in the
first quarter of 2016.
Also, during this period, about 10,000 passengers
took advantage of the free bus shuttle organised by
the federal government to transport passengers
between the Abuja and Kaduna airports.
The free bus shuttle conveys passengers between
Abuja and Kaduna airports, starting at the Abuja
airport at 6 o’clock in the morning,and at the
Kaduna Airport from 8 a.m. The shuttle takes
three hours from airport to airport, and runs every
30 minutes, until the arrival of the last daily flight
in Kaduna.




The shuttle is in addition to the federal
government’s free train service between Abuja and
Kaduna. The two-and-half-hour train
service departs Abuja’s Idu Station for Kaduna at 6
a.m., 11.55 a.m. and 5.45p.m. Mondays to
Saturdays; and departs Kaduna’s Rigasa Station
for Abuja at 9 a.m., 2.50 p.m. and 8.40 p.m.



According to the report, the federal government’s
coordinating committee, comprising senior
officials of the Ministry of Aviation, its parastatals
(FAAN, NCAA, NAMA, AIB), and security and
emergency agencies (Police, FRSC, DSS, NEMA),
is chaired by the Minister of
State Aviation, Hadi Sirika, and has been meeting
weekly to review operations, collate statistics, and
implement internal and external feedback.
Also in its latest report, the committee highlighted
the deployment of173 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, two 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 March 8, to enable the
reconstruction of the entire runway which
constructed in 1982, and has, until now, seen no
repair works,despite the fact that it was built to
last no more than 25 years. The reconstruction,
being carried out by Julius Berger,has since
commenced, and is now in its third week –
halfway into the planned six weeks.


After the Abuja airport reopens for operations on
April 19, upgradeworks on the runway will
continue for another 18 weeks. This secondphase
of upgrade works on the runway will be carried
out at night, with no disruption to flight schedules,
the Presidency official said.
The source added that a media tour to allow
reporters observe and assess the progress on the
Abuja airport runway repair will hold this week, as
the repair is about its mid-point on Wednesday.
The federal government’s coordinating committee
has launched a series of customer engagement
initiatives to enable passengers and travellers
affected by the closure get up-to-date information
and updates.