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By Sylvester Ugochukwu Ugwuanyi
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Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State on Sunday took most people by storm when he announced that the international passenger and cargo airport built by his predecessor will now go by the name of Chinua Achebe International Airport. He stated that the decision was made after consulting with stakeholders across the State.
Achebe was born on 16th November 1930 in Ogidi, Anambra State and died on 21st March 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature, whose first novel Things Fall Apart, is often regarded as the greatest piece of literature to come out of Africa. The magnum opus has since been translated to over 50 languages.
READ ALSO: Soludo Renames Anambra Airport ‘Chinua Achebe International Airport’
18 Facts About China Achebe International Airport In Anambra
Prime Business Africa now brings you some exciting features of the airport which has now been named after the literary icon also known for the novels: No Longer at Ease and A Man of the People:
1. The state-of-the-arts facility which sits on 1,500 hectares of land at Umueri in Anambra East Local Government Area of the State was inaugurated on Saturday, 30th October 2021 as Anambra International Cargo and Passenger Airport.
2. It was built in a record time of 15 months by the Governor Willie Obiano administration. The government sought no financial aid for the project, yet none of the nine contractors and nine service providers was owed a dime as of the time of inauguration.
3. A test flight was performed on 30th April 2021 when a plane from the Air Peace fleet belonging to Chief Allen Onyema landed at the Airport.
4. The airport is expected to create about 1000 direct and indirect jobs.
5. The facility is a Category (CAT) 4F airport, meaning that an A380 aircraft or an Airbus can land comfortably in the airport.
6. The runway is the second-longest runway in Nigeria with: –
– Length – 3.7km and a runway end safety area (RESA) of 1km at both ends of the runway.
– Width – 60m
– Strip – 440 metres on either side of the runway
– Thickness – 270mm
7. The runway is equipped with CAT 2 lighting system. This implies that a plane can be guided by the light to land safely even in adverse weather conditions.
8. The airport is equipped with a satellite landing system (SLS). This provides for satellite assisted landing of aircraft should the runway lights fail for any reason.
9. The airport also has Instrument landing system, ILS, which ensures that aircrafts are vertically and horizontally aligned with the runway while landing.
10. Runways: The airport has two taxiways.
11. The Apron: The airport apron measures 300 metres by 200 metres.
– It can accommodate 8 Boeing 747 aircraft at the same time.
– It is built on a rigid pavement of concrete with a thickness measuring 560mm and reinforced top and bottom with concrete measuring 16mm in thickness.
– The Apron is built to repel water. So even when it rains, water runs off the surface easily.
12. Unique Control Tower: At a height of 34.5 metres, the control tower of the airport is the tallest in Nigeria.
– It is built with concrete top to bottom
– It is the height of an 11-storey building.
– The control tower has nine suspended floors.
– It is equipped with a lift and a staircase.
– Both the lift and staircase are fireproof.
– It is also equipped with biometric security doors.
– Every room in the control tower and indeed the entire airport is equipped with a water sprinkler.
– However, the control tower has an inbuilt fire-fighting system that triggers off when there’s a fire emergency.
13. The airport has a terminal building designed to accommodate 400 passengers. Other features include:
– A departure and arrival lounge
– There are 36 shops in the building
– There are three lifts and three escalators
– Two Avio bridges each equipped with dual boarding passages. This means that four aircraft can take passengers at the same time.
14. Being a CAT 9 airport, Rescue and Fire Fighting Services include the following:
– It has three fire tenders (fire engines) that can shoot water up to the height of the control tower.
– The tenders can be controlled by the driver alone.
– The airport is also equipped with 20 hydrants.
15. The airport is equipped with two industrial boreholes which pump water into:
– Tank 1 – 640 cubic metres
– Tank 2 – 240 cubic metres
– There’s also a water treatment plant that takes water to overhead tanks.
-The total volume of overhead tanks is 123 cubic metres.
16. Power: A 33 KVA line drawn from Agu Awka to the airport guarantees an 18-hour power supply.
– Two units of 500KVA generators serve as a backup to provide power always.
17. Car Park: The car park is aphalted and properly marked. It is designed to accommodate about 750 vehicles.
18. Airport roads: The airport road has two access roads. The first and major airport road measures about 5.7km and connects the Onitsha-Enugu expressway to the airport. It is a dual carriageway road fitted with a bridge on either side of the carriageway. It has drainages on both sides. The road is completed, clearly marked and fitted with streetlights.
The second airport road measures about 4km and connects the airport to the Nteje-Umueri-Aguleri road. The driveways within the airport are all asphalted and marked.
