The Nigeria Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), on Thursday, kicked against plan by the Federal Government to close the runway of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja for repairs.
The NATCA President, Mr Victor Eyaru, made the aviation union’s position known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
NAN reports that the government had proposed to close the airport from March 8 for six weeks to repair the dilapidated runway.
However, Eyaru noted that the government should have a rethink of completely shutting down the airport during the period because of its economic and security implications.
He said the government should have brought the various stakeholders before a round table to look at the issues holistically.
“It is like the government puts the cart before the horse. It ought to have exhausted deliberations with stakeholders on how best to go about the maintenance and repair of the runway.
“So it took the decision before involving the stakeholders thereby depriving them of making inputs,’’ he said.
According to him, there are countries that have repaired their runways without necessarily closing down the airport.
Eyaru said: “what we need to do is to ask those countries how they did it because they were working on the runway but the airport remained functional.
“Those are the things government ought to have done before taking any decision because economically it is not wise and security wise; diverting flights to Kaduna airport is risky for travellers.
“Also, the facilities at the Kaduna airport are not enough. Presently, air traffic control is done from the fire service building but government had yet to rectified that as promised.
“There are knotty issues to be resolved before arriving at the decision to close down the Abuja airport’’.
He noted that while the plan by the government to repair the runway was commendable, it must be done with the consideration for the safety of passengers flying the Abuja route. (NAN)
WAC/ASO/AOM/YEMI