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The
tail of a Lufthansa airplane is seen outside a Lufthansa Technik maintenance
hangar at Malta International Airport outside Valletta, Malta, November 23,
2016. Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi
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German carrier Lufthansa will not fly to the replacement air hub for the Nigerian capital of
Abuja while the main airport is closed for repairs from next month, a company
spokesman said on Thursday.
Reuters
report continues:
The
Nigerian government has said airlines will use the little-known city of Kaduna's
airport, about 100 miles north of the capital, while the main airport is
undergoing repairs, scheduled to take six weeks from March 8.
"We
won't fly from Kaduna during the closure of Abuja airport for six weeks,"
the Lufthansa spokesman said by phone.
He
did not give a reason.
The
runway at the main airport had deteriorated to such an extent that some major
international carriers refused to fly there, and some aircraft reported damage
to their undercarriage.
While
it is closed Abuja-bound passengers will have to fly to Kaduna and travel by
bus to the capital, guarded by security, on a road where kidnappings have taken
place in the past few years.
The
plans for Kaduna to handle Abjua flights have been met with scepticism. The
airport handled just 12 flights in December 2015, the last month for which
Nigeria's airports authority has figures, compared with 812 that used Abuja.
A
new terminal is being built but when Reuters visited it last month it was still
under construction with cables hanging from ceilings. Contingency plans are in
place for the existing terminal to be used.
The
temporary closure of Abuja's airport has been criticized by aviation labour
unions, business leaders and diplomats.
British
Airways, Air France, Turkish Airlines, EgyptAir and Ethiopian Airlines also fly
to Abuja.
In October, Dubai-based Emirates stopped flying to Abuja, blaming the state of the runway among other factors, according to the ministry.
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