Last Tuesday, the Delta State government signed a concession agreement with a consortium of private companies to manage and run the Asaba Airport for a period of 30 years.
The concession agreement is coming after five years of negotiations between the parties involved in the concession. The negotiation started in 2016 when the current Governor of Delta State, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa indicated his intention to concession the airport for better management.The Asaba Airport Company Limited, the concessionaire, is a consortium that has technical partners as sub-concessionaires.
“FIDC is an emerging and fast-growing Nigerian building, construction and civil engineering company. Menzies on the other hand is one of the biggest airport operators in the world. It operates in over 200 airports around the world, showing dominance in most major airports in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Europe and South Africa.”
Explaining why the airport had to be concessioned, the Governor said that the airport which was conceived and built by former Governor of Delta, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan to “ tap from the proximity of the Eastern cities of Onitsha and Nnewi and to be a hub for cargo export for agricultural and manufactured products suffered a major setback when the airport was downgraded to category three by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority in 2015.
“This administration completed the installation of ILS and airfield lighting system so that the airport can handle night operations. The airport has operated several night flights approved by the NCAA and NAMA. The fire fighting system has been completed while the controller tower has been modernized.