The Bayelsa State government yesterday celebrated the first commercial flight operation to its new airport, which was built at the cost of about N65 billion.
The Governor of the state, Seriake Dickson said that the project cost as much because the contractor of the airport, Dantata and Sawoe had to sand fill the whole airport to about four meters, adding that additional costs on the airport would be incurred in the compensation of the host communities that gave land for the project.
Dickson also said the airport has one of the longes runway in Nigeria with 3.5 kilometers long and 4.5 meters wide.
The airport, known as Bayelsa International Airport, was commemorated with an inaugural flight by the Governor, Seriake Dickson, from Abuja, at a few minutes past 2:00 pm followed by an Air Peace flight from Lagos, at 2:40pm.
Dickson said the airport was built to improve the economy of the state, and would soon be fully inaugurated for both local and international flights.
The governor said the state government handled the entire project without input from the Federal Government or the Niger Delta Development Commission.
Dickson said the report that the state government spent between N120 billion and N150 billion on the project was not true, adding that the facility would be able to accommodate big body aircraft like the Boeing B777 and B747.
The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Daniel Iworisoma, said the airport would create over 2000 direct and indirect jobs for indigenes of the state.
He described the airport as a Valentine’s Day present to the people of Bayelsa state, stressing that the airport was built strictly for business, especially the oil and gas industry and had no political undertone.
“We must put politics aside for us to have development. This is the first airport in Bayelsa, to help develop the economy. This airport will serve as a hub for the petroleum industry but we want to also look away from oil and gas and look at other revenue sources, so this is a legacy project,” he said.
The Senator representing Bayelsa East, Ben Bruce, said the airport would ease movement for indigenes of the state and also boost trade and commerce.
The Airport Manager, Mrs Elizabeth Daitere, said the airport would operate day time flights for now, adding that all safety infrastructure were in place for commercial and cargo flight operations.
She said commercial flight operations would soon commence for Bayelsa-Lagos-Bayelsa and Bayelsa-Abuja daily operations.
