President
Muhammadu Buhari today inaugurated the 600 million dollars new international
terminal at the Port Harcourt International Airport funded by the Export-Import
Bank of China and the Nigerian Government.
With
him during the commissioning were Minister of Labour Chris Ngige, Rivers state
Governor Nyesom Wike, Minister of State Aviation Hadi Sirika and Rivers APC
Gubernatorial Candidate Mr Tonye Cole.
Port
Harcourt International Airport (IATA: PHC, ICAO: DNPO) is an international
airport located in Omagwa, a suburb of Port Harcourt, the capital city of the
Rivers State in Nigeria. The airport has a single terminal with separate
facilities for international and domestic flights. In 2009, the airport served
1,081,587 passengers, making it the third-busiest airport in Nigeria.
On
18 August 2006, the airport was closed for repairs. The Nigerian Civil Aviation
Authority stated that the emergency shutdown was in order to overhaul the
runway and build a fence around the facility. Such maintenance had been in
planning stages for several months, but an electrical fire on 17 August 2006
made repairs immediately necessary. All domestic flights were diverted to Sam Mbakwe
Airport (Owerri), Akanu Ibiam International Airport (Enugu) and Margaret Ekpo
International Airport (Calabar), while international flights were diverted to
Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (Abuja) or Murtala Mohammed International
Airport (Lagos).
Repair
work started in January 2007, while re-opening was originally expected to be in
August 2007. In June 2007, work was suspended due to safety concerns of the
engineers.
In
December 2007, the airport was reopened to a limited capacity. Operations were
restricted to daytime until the first quarter of 2008, by which time the new
CAT III lighting system became fully operational.
AutoReportNG
was able to obtain some exclusives of the interior of the airport.
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