The Enugu State Caucus in the House of Representatives is backing the Federal Government’s plan to concession the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu. According to them, the move will help boost the South East economy. The group called for support for the airport concessioning.

In a statement yesterday, the caucus led by Nnolim Nnaji said: “Due to poor capital investment, the Akanu Ibiam International Airport remains partially completed and indeed an international airport only in name over two decades since it was designated as such by the Federal Government. “Critical components such as cargo terminal, runway, international terminal, among others, are either non-existent or requiring completion or upgrade.

“Businesses and the people of the South East, especially have borne the brunt of these inadequacies, which manifest in the paucity of international flights and intermittent closure of the airport for repair of the runway, as recently witnessed.

“Therefore, we believe that the concessioning of the airport, as currently being processed by the Federal Government, is the only realistic approach to attracting adequate resources to build the requisite infrastructure and expand existing ones to place AIIA in the league of other international airports around the world.”

They added: “We call on the government to hasten this process, for the people of the South East in particular and Nigeria in general to start benefiting from the huge possibilities and blessings it holds.

“We also have faith in the government through the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development to entrust AIIA to a concessionaire with the financial and technical prowess, strong international pedigree and reputation as well as antecedent of verifiable successes to actualise the target.

Nothing less than this is acceptable and capable of catalysing the much-needed South East regional economic prosperity and transformation,”