He also ruled out possible approval for floating a national carrier in the aviation sector, noting that government does not have the managerial and technical skills requisite for running businesses better undertaken by the private sector.
He explained that the closure of the Airport followed a technical audit report by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), which revealed that there are potholes on the runway, which constitutes safety risks, that needs to be repaired.
Uzodinma spoke while fielding questions from State House Correspondents shortly after a visit to President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, yesterday.
He advised those wishing to fly into Abuja within the period of closure to seek alternative routes to the Federal Capital City.
He made it clear, the closure “was done for obvious safety reasons. We have some potholes that are already seen as serious hazards. Don’t forget that that is the only runway that lands our President, all the important personalities and investors that come into this country.
“So at the last time, there was a technical audit by FAA in keeping with international regulations and they opened items on the country, among them the Abuja runway.
“So we now had series of meetings with the Minister of Aviation and the airlines and agreed that from 12 o’clock on Saturday midnight to Sunday, Julius Berger will take enough time to repair the runway and commence navigation once again.
“So it is just for pure maintenance programme based on safety reasons and it is welcome by all of us.”
On alternative entry routes, he said: “The next thing anybody can do is to look for the nearest airport to Abuja, either Kaduna or Minna and choose whether it will make a better business sense to land there or not to fly at all.
“Whatever may be the case between midnight Saturday and Sunday, it’s not something anybody can cry about. All over the world, airports and runways are usually closed whenever there are obvious maintenance programmes that bother on safety. Our own should not be an exception.”
On a national carrier, Uzodinma said it would not be proper to entrust on government the operation of businesses being undertaken by the private sector since the economy was already being privatized.
He said the best that could be done is to give support to private airline operators that will carry the nation’s flag as being done by countries like France, Britain and United State of America.
This would be such an incovinience.
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