The Ebonyi State Government said plans are underway to float four aircraft with a capacity of over fifty passengers following the completion of the runway of the Chuba Okadigbo International Airport.
The Commissioner for Aviation and Transport Technology, Dr Ngozi Obichukwu, made this known on Sunday while interacting with newsmen during the inspection of the project.
Obichukwu, who explained that the 3.1-metre runway has been completed and is currently being marked, added that the state government awaits the commissioning of the runway by President Bola Tinubu.
She said that the state government gave the project top priority and maintained that the runway was large enough for three flights to land on it at a time.
When asked if the state government intends to lease the prospective flights once they are launched, she explained: “We may go beyond Ibom Air; they started with leasing. We may not go into leasing. We want to have our own and may not go into CRJ. We want to have something bigger than CRJ, as CRJ may have about 30–40 people but we are going to have something bigger than CRJ that will accommodate about 60 passengers.
“We are going to equally have flights for cargo. This airport is for both humans and cargo. When I was in Addis Ababa, I saw the real cargo department, where they have all the warehouses: cassava, palm oil, yam, garri and all sorts. We’ll have it here to export our agricultural produce,” she said.