Advertisements

Advertisements

Advertisements

Less than four months after the apparent collapse of the federal government’s unveiled Nigeria Air in a London Air Show, the Akwa Ibom State Government on Wednesday took delivery of two aircraft for the effective take off of Ibom Air.
The two aircrafts include CRJ 900 series from Canada with registration C-FWNL and C-FWNK in preparation for flight operations as state owned airline. The state government also disclosed that the third aircraft in the fleet would arrive on Friday, February 22, 2019.
Checks show that the aircraft were about six years old.
In his remarks, the Technical consultant, Capt. Mfon Udom, said Ibom Air will commence local operations with initial fleet of three aircraft which the airline will progressively raise to 10 ahead of its planned regional and international operations in few years.
Welcoming the arrival of the aircrafts in Uyo, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, described it as historic, saying that it would boost tourism and aviation in the state.
Saraki stated that Ibom Air showed that the Governor, Udom Emmanuel, had the interest of his people at heart, and was working to bring investment to the state, improve governance and provide leadership.
According to him, “When you have a man from the private sector of a business that understands what it takes to bring in investment. Millions of youths are searching for jobs; the government on its own cannot provide those jobs. It is the government that can facilitate an environment for investment that will bring hope for our people; that is what Udom is doing here.
“He is creating the environment for the opportunity for people to have jobs; he is creating the environment for investment. That is why we need a new president, a president that thinks like him, a president that understands about job creation.”
Earlier in his keynote address, the state governor, Chief Emmanuel Udom noted that the airline was an achievement for his administration, adding that the aircraft had a sitting capacity of about 90 people and were among the newest and modern fleet of the manufacturer.
He said the airline would operate routes that would give preference to Akwa Ibom people, and that the government would soon launch one of the best terminal buildings in the country.
The Governor averred that “The state government has strived to focus development of the state economy on land, air and water. So far, the state government has constructed over 1,000 kilometres of roads across the state while the plan to construct the most digital seaport, the Ibom deep seaport, in the state was on.
Aviation analysts who were on at the Airport, compared Akwa Ibom model and what Imo State Government did with Dana Air and argued that Ibom Air model is more transparent and reliable that the veiled understanding which Dana Air had with the Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha.