Eno Inah, commissioner of aviation, Cross River State
Sade Williams/Business a.m.
Tourism-loving Cross River State requires additional airports to fully showcase its tourism potential, attract more business and leisure travellers to the state, says Eno Inah, the state’s commissioner of aviation.
An optimistic Inah is bullish that adding one or two more airports to the one in Calabar and another being built at Obudu, would not be a burden to the state government or be handed over to the federal government in the future.
Cross River State was positioned to be a leading state in the country because of its geographical location, he said.
“Outside the coastline, we are at the depth of the Gulf of Guinea, that’s Sao Tome and Principe, there is Equatorial Guinea and others. If you can’t land in Calabar, you can land in Obudu airport,” he said.
Inah emphasised further that the present Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar was inadequate for the myriad of activities ongoing in the state, adding that as a result of the location of the airport, the state government could not extend its capacity.
On the ongoing construction of Obudu Cargo Airport by the government, Inah assured that the airport would be launched before the end of the year.
He maintained that a second or third airport in Cross River State would not only be viable, but also contribute to the economic growth of the state and the federation account.
Inah pointed out that the tourism industry in the state was fast developing, likening its growth to that of South Africa and other countries within the continent.
He said: “We can even add a third airport to the plan. If you are a regular traveller outside the country, especially to Europe, you will know that we have airports with close proximity in Europe. We have airports that are just there for maintenance purposes alone.
“I can tell you that there will be an additional airport even in Calabar soon. Don’t worry about Obudu Cargo Airport, we will complete it.
“The Margaret Ekpo International Airport is constrained completely because there is no space for expansion, it’s inside the community and the neighbourhood is very close and right now, you cannot expand the runway. Urban development has eaten into the place with lots of encroachment into the land.
“In the future, the Calabar Airport may likely be for the Air Force or may be when the President is flying to Calabar or anyone wants to meet with the governor, they can fly into that airport while the other ones will be purely for commercial aviation. Big aircraft as it is, can’t come to Calabar airport because of its small runway. And more so, it’s a federal government airport,” he further explained.
On the state’s planned owned-carrier, Inah assured that the government would receive its Air Transport License (ATL) from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in the next three months, while the Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) would follow suit.
Already, he declared that the state government had acquired additional two CRJ1000 aircraft in preparation for its own airline.
He lauded the management of Aero Contractors, led by Ado Sanusi, the chief executive officer of the airline for following the agreement reached with the state government on the operations of Cally Air to the letter.
“We are very much at home with the agreement we have with Aero Contractors and there is no default from any of the two sides.
“Our relationship with the management of Aero Contractors is very smooth, we don’t have issues with them. We are working hard to be an airline like them. They are setting the standards and raising the bar in the airline sub-sector,” he said.
He disclosed that Cross River State also planned to build a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facilities and aviation school as parts of its aviation projects.
