Aviation analyst and former Commandant of Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, retired Group Capt. John Ojikutu has decried the state of Port Harcourt International Airport in Rivers state, saying it has not changed since 2016 when it was rated the worst airport in the world.
He said the airport at the moment which he visited recently could be described as the "shameful portrait of a nation"
In a statement sent to our correspondent, Ojikutu said, "I saw that airport last in 2007 when it was stripped down for major repairs. For me the airport has not changed from the way I saw it last. PH airport has still not changed from the way it was two years ago when it was classified as the worst airport in the world. "The arrival hall still remains in a canopy of the size of a nursery school classroom where well over 300 passengers that landed from Lagos and Abuja were cramped waiting for their checked in baggage. Although I had no checked in baggage to collect, but I could not but be imagining what could be in the perceptions of the foreigners about the airport, the management and the leadership of our nation." Daily Trust however reports that a new terminal is under construction by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) alongside others in Lagos, Abuja and Kano. The projects expected to be delivered before the end of the year.
Spokesperson of FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu told our correspondent that the inconveniences being experienced by passengers at the airport would be a thing of the past once the new terminal is completed by July. "You know two terminals are being constructed there. Once the project is completed, the international passengers would go to international while the domestic passengers would move to the domestic wing", she said.
