From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
First commercial flight has landed in Wilberforce Chuba Okadigbo Airport, Ebonyi State.
The United Nigeria Airlines with registration 5N-8WV landed at the airport at exactly 10:30am on Friday with passengers. The airline carried passengers from Abuja to the airport.
One of the passengers, Emmanuel Nwafor, described the landing of the aircraft at the airport as a dream come through.
“We’ve yearned and at a point we were even agitating because the volume of investment in this airport by the state government is something this airport should have been classified as the best in the country, but we are seeing a lot of delay in commencement.
“But today, history is made, we have broken the jinx and I’m privileged to be part of the partakers of what God has done for Ebonyi State. The flight was very smooth. There was no turbulence during the take off, and the landing was very perfect,” he said.
Another passenger who landed at the airport, Prof Chigozie Ogbu, also said: “This is the first flight and I am lucky to be part of the passengers that landed here. It was a very smooth landing. The runway is one of the best in the country and it was a good landing, as good as any place in the world and I flew from Abuja.”
Former Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Chief Elias Mbam, who was among the passengers that boarded to Abuja from the airport, said he was happy. Commissioner for Aviation and Transport Technology in the state, Mrs Ngozi Obichukwu, commended Governor Francis Nwifuru for ensuring that flight operations commenced in the airport.
“More are yet to come because on Monday we’re taking off from Lagos to here and we’re taking off from here to Lagos,” the commissioner said.