Anambra State is set to start test-running facilities at the newly constructed Anambra International Airport, Umuleri. The first commercial flight is expected to land at the airport on April 30, 2021.
The state’s information and public enlightenment commissioner Don Adinuba made the announcement after a report alleging the aviation ministry offered Anambra licence to operate only a domestic airport instead of an international one.
The commissioner, in his reaction, stated: “The report fails to state when the Minister announced the alleged decision, how and to whom. In other words, it fails the basic requirements of a news report,” he said.
“Yet, we are compelled to refute the substandard report because of the anxiety it has created in millions of Nigerians, particularly Anambra people, across the globe who cannot wait to make use of the airport.”
The airport will begin with domestic operations, before taking on regional and international ones.
Adinuba claims the airport’s 5.7km long and 60m wide runway is the longest and largest in Africa.
“Its facilities are the most modern in the whole country, and such pieces of equipment as the fire trucks rank among the most modern in the world. It is the only airport in Nigeria with satellite landing instruments. The implication is that planes can land there any time of the day or night,” he said.
“True, Anambra International Cargo/Passenger Airport may be the fifth airport to be built by any Nigerian state government. But it is the only one conceived and built for international operations. It is the only built in just one year three months.”
