The Federal Government has pledged to ensure the delivery of a new airport in Lagos before 2020 Easter celebration.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed this in an interview with journalists at the end of the Federal Executive Council(FEC) meeting on Wednesday.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari had approved counterpart funding for the delivery of the airport as scheduled.
“Mr. President has approved counterpart funding to quickly finish the new Lagos airport and that of Kano. We will by God’s grace complete Kano Airport in December and the new Lagos Airport with that of Enugu before Easter,” he said.
The minister also said the necessity to construct a new airport in Lagos had become compelling, bearing in mind that when the Murtala Muhammed Airport was first commissioned in 1980, it was meant to serve only 200,000 people.
He, however, said the number of passengers using the airport has risen from 200,000 in 1980 to eight million today with a number of infrastructures at the airport already collapsed.
Sirika also explained that the plan to overhaul the Lagos airport is in two phases, noting that after the delivery of the new airport, the old one will be redesigned and reconstructed in acknowledgement of the growing population of Lagos as well as the attraction that Lagos continues to generate.
