The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said it will soon start the removal of all abandoned aircraft from all airports in the country.
This exercise has become necessary because these aircraft constitute a serious safety hazard on the airside, apart from being an eyesore at these airports, as some of these aircraft have been abandoned for upwards of 10 years, said Yakubu Dati, FAAN’s General Manager, Corporate Communications.
The Authority, he said is constrained to embark on this exercise because owners of these abandoned aircraft have deliberately refused to remove them despite all efforts made by the Authority to make them do so, including meetings with the owners and publication of paid notices in various newspapers in the past five years.
Some of the owners of these abandoned aircraft had taken FAAN to court over this issue and got court injunctions that made it difficult for the Authority to carry out this exercise before now. Some of these cases have now been concluded hence the commencement of the removal exercise, at least for the abandoned aircraft which cases have been concluded.
He further appealed to owners of abandoned aircraft to remove them from all the airports within the next one month, stressing that the presence of the abandoned aircraft at the airports negates the spirit of the current aviation master plan of the Federal Government.