Nigeria's Aviation News Headlines for July 28, 2016
Buhari Orders Immediate Repair of Abuja Airport Runway(Punch)
President
Muhammadu Buhari has given an order for the immediate repair of the failed
portions of the runway of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, the
Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has said.
This
is coming as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu,
declared that despite the scarcity of aviation fuel, known as Jet-A1, Nigerians
should know that the commodity had been liberalised by the Federal Government.
Both
ministers spoke at the VIP lounge of the NAIA on Wednesday before an inspection
tour by Sirika.
The
Aviation minister told journalists that the Abuja airport runway was actually
due for reconstruction 14 years ago, but nothing tangible was done on the
facility, which led to the breakdown of some portions.
He
stated that he had to shut down the affected portions of the runway in order to
avert disaster, a development that made it impossible for some aircraft to land
at the airport during the period.
Sirika,
however, stated that the portions that were shut had been reopened as
maintenance and repairs had been effected, adding that the President had approved
the interim repair of the runway as well a major reconstruction of it in the
near future.
“Mr.
President has directed that there should be an immediate repair on the runway
in the short term,” he said.
Sirika
said there had not been any major repair of the Abuja airport runway since it
was constructed in 1982.
“Ordinarily,
the runway is to last for only 20 years, but since the 20 years elapsed in
2002, no serious repairs had been carried out on it,” he said.
The
minister further stated that the Federal Government could not continue to fund
the nation’s airports, adding that it had resolved to adopt the Public-Private
Partnership model for the development of the facilities.
Why
FG Should Urgently Tackle Scarcity of Aviation Fuel(Tribune)
For some time now, air travelers
particularly those on the domestic scene have been subjected to hardship
inflicted on them by the non-availability of aviation fuel and the subsequent
flight delay and cancellation by the domestic airlines.
While many of the passengers have become
miserable with the unstable situation, the airlines are at the receiving end
with passengers mounting pressure on them even as they go in search of Jet A1,
the other name for aviation fuel.
Some of the airlines had raised the alarm of
how the commodity has continued to be unavailable despite the astronomical
price the oil marketers sell it.
Presently, the product is selling for as high
as N180 per litre in Lagos while it sells for between N195 and N200 in other
places like Abuja and Kano.
Arik Air had in the past weeks cried out over
the negative effects the non-availability of the commodity has on its
operations which the management claimed if not tackled urgently may hinder the
operations of the airline.
According to the airline, since the beginning
of this year, Nigeria has been grappling with inadequate supply of aviation
fuel leading in most cases to severe shortage of the product and consequently
the disruption of flight operations.
Dana Air is another domestic operator that
has complained about the scarcity of aviation fuel which it said had not really
helped its flight services to the flying public.
Just like the two, Medview Airline though has
not cancelled or delayed its flights based on the agreement the airline has
with its oil marketer.
While the airline is sacrificing so much to
keep its operations ongoing, it is doing so at a great expense of having to buy
the commodity at a very high rate.
Unfortunately,
the rate at which the airlines are being forced to delay or cancel their
flights with passengers getting agitated across the airports is heating up the
challenges confronting the sector.
Air
Côte d’Ivoire Expands its Airbus Fleet(Tribune)
Air
Côte d’Ivoire, Ivory Coast’s national airline has signed a firm order for the
purchase of an additional A320neo to complete its fleet.
The
order was signed at the just concluded Farnborough Air Show in United Kingdom.
Air
Côte d’Ivoire already distinguished itself in the spring by becoming the first
African airline to order the A320neo.
Reacting
to the development, the Chairman of the airline board, General Abdoulaye
Oulibaly said: “This additional A320neo will allow Air Côte d’Ivoire to truly
differentiate its product by offering a higher level of comfort to its
customers with new aircraft. Thanks
to
this new Airbus aircraft, Air Côte d’Ivoire will also improve its operating
efficiency to better meet the need for traffic growth.”
For
John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer, Customers, “This vote of confidence
from Air Côte d’Ivoire is further proof of the rapid traffic growth in Africa,
and of the leading role that this dynamic airline aims to play in the
development of air transport onthis
continent. Airbus is delighted to contribute to this.”
Mysterious Zika Infections in Florida(New Telegraph)
Health officials in Florida are investigating four cases of Zika that do not appear to be related to travel.So far cases outside of Latin America and the Caribbean, where the virus is prevalent, have been spread by travel to that region or sexual transmission.
The four Florida cases have raised the possibility that mosquitoes in the US have begun to carry the virus.
Zika causes only a mild illness in most people but the virus has been linked to severe brain defects in newborns.
Florida officials say they have not drawn any conclusions and are still looking into how the virus was transmitted.
The four cases were detected in the Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
To confirm whether Zika is being carried by mosquitoes locally, scientists will survey houses and people within a 150-yard (metre) radius of the cases, the flying radius of the insect.
US experts were baffled last week by another case, in Utah, in which a carer caught Zika after tending to a dying elderly man with the virus, reports the BBC
And earlier this week, a Spanish woman infected with Zika gave birth to a baby boy with the brain disease microcephaly, thought to be the first such birth in Europe.
https://newtelegraphonline.com/mysterious-zika-infections-florida
FG Shuts Nine Foreign Missions, Rationalises Staff(DailyTrust)
The Federal Government has approved the
closure of nine foreign missions and their conversion to non-residency
representation or concurrent accreditation, Daily Trust findings have shown.
The
closure, our reporters gathered, is part of measures to reduce the cost of
running Nigeria’s foreign representations in line with the economic situation.
The affected missions are those whose absence
portend no serious bilateral or diplomatic effect sources said. They
include the Permanent Mission to the D-8 in Istanbul, Turkey; the Africa-South
America Cooperation Forum (ASACOF) in Caracas, Venezuela;
embassies in
Belgrade, Serbia; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Kiev, Ukraine; Prague, Czech Republic;
the High Commission in Singapore as well as Consulates in Buea, Cameroon and
Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Also approved for
rationalisation is the number of officers at foreign missions, estacode for
local travels and award of honorary consuls.
The government also ordered that posting
staff of home ministries to foreign missions should be discontinued, while
Foreign Service officers should be trained to carry out multiple tasks
including administration, immigration, trade, culture and education related
functions.
Daily Trust learnt
that the rationalisation exercise will affect all 119 Nigeria’s foreign
missions.
Apart from 35
missions, the government directed that all other missions should be run by an
ambassador and not more than three home-based staff. The level of local
staffing, it said, must be controlled.
A letter from the Chief of Staff to the
President, Abba Kyari, addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey
Onyeama dated June 8, 2016, said the practice of violating staffing ceilings
for each mission must be stopped and corrective measures be put
in place. Consequently, it said, there should
be a review of the staff strength necessary for each mission.
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