Ogun makes first commercial flight at Gateway Airport
The Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, on Tuesday inaugurated the first commercial flight of the Gateway International Airport, Ilishan Remo.
The aircraft owned by Valuejet, with registration number 5N-BXS and 90 passengers on board, departed the airport at 10.10am to Abuja.
Speaking at the airport located along the Iperu-Ilisan road in the Ikenne Local Government Area of the state, the governor said the journey to actualize the airport started in 2021 and was part of the vision to provide a well-modeled transport system for the state.
He said, “I am glad to be here today to actually witness the inaugural flight of a commercial aircraft taking off from Ogun State; this is not like AI, this is real. Commercial operations are starting from Ogun State in the lifetime of an administration.
“We came here in 2021; some people said it was just a photo op, they said it was just politics, they mocked us, and they said this place is nothing but a dump site. Some even said that we were going to use this place as a cattle ranch.
“Some others had this airport built on a PowerPoint, but again, we are here today, and we have seen what can be achieved when there is vision, when there is collective vision, inclusive vision, inclusive participation, and when there is passion and diligence.
“We began to construct in late 2021; in February 2023, this same Valuejet was the first plane to land on this runway; it was a test flight of our runway. Building an airport is one thing; having an airport become operational is a totally different thing because it is a very highly regulated industry.”
He emphasized that his administration was determined to have the best-constructed, equipped, and befitting airport for the state, noting that apart from being the industrial capital of the nation, the state is blessed with a population, making it the fastest-growing economy in Nigeria today.
The administration’s vision, Abiodun maintained, is supported by several business cases, adding that the airport is situated in an Aerotropolis, with many companies springing up, just as the biggest textile plant in the world and the Nigeria Customs Village are sited around the airport.
“It speaks for itself; more people are coming to live, work, and play in Ogun State, so this airport makes sense; it ticks the box of our multimodal transport master plan where we connect roads to rail to air, and soon, we will be connected to the sea,” Abiodun added.
He appreciated regulators in the aviation sector, especially the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Minister of Aviation, Mr. Festus Keyamo, for providing quality supervision for the airport.
The Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Chris Ona-Najomo, commended the state government for keeping faith with all regulatory dictates of the regulatory agencies, just as he expressed satisfaction with the project.
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