By Meletus EZE
The Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr Saleh Dunoma, has assured international air travelers of pleasant experience in Port Harcourt International Airport following the inauguration of its new international terminal.
Dunoma gave the assurance while addressing newsmen during the inauguration of the new terminal by President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Port Harcourt.
Dunoma said the new terminal would provide the needed comfort for passengers with the availability of world class facilities in the terminal.
He added that the facility would also be a response to those that had hitherto rated the airport as the worst.
This terminal, jointly funded through the Chinese Exim Bank and Nigerian government, was supposed to be completed in 2014 but could not be delivered because of several issues.
According to him, the China EXIMbank provided 500 million dollars and the Federal Government provided a 100 million dollars counterpart funding.
“It has been a whole lot of work because what the government decided to do was to embark on this construction and the remodeling of the domestic terminal.
“Passengers have suffered and we worked hard to make sure that these two projects are completed.
“There was a group that said that Port Harcourt airport was the worst but today we want to answer them. A lot of efforts paid off.
“I thank the government of President Muhammadu Buhari for its support because when they came in, this project was at a very low level of completion and today, all issues have been resolved and this project is ready for commissioning.
“We are going to start using it immediately and the international passengers are going to have a wonderful experience here.
“It is of international standard because all facilities that are required for international operations are provided and the terminal is very apt in design, it is of high capacity,” he said.
Dunoma disclosed that work was also ongoing at the local terminal even though it had been very slow.
“We are almost there because we are also pushing but now that this terminal is commissioned and we are going to start international operations here, there will be a lot of space there to work on another project.
