Bristow Helicopters (Nigeria) Limited on Thursday said it would operate its Lagos-Abuja fixed-wing charter service via Minna Airport during the closure of the runway at Abuja Airport.
The Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport is expected to be closed by March 8 for the repair of the badly damaged runway while the Federal Government had chosen Kaduna International Airport as an alternative for Abuja bound passengers.
Some foreign airlines had indicated they would not be flying to Kaduna during the closure.
However, Bristow said it would continue to operate its daily flight from Lagos-Abuja which would be routed through Minna using an Embraer 135 aircraft with 37 seating capacity.
At Minna Airport, the airline would operate a helicopter shuttle service to and from Abuja airport for its customers using two helicopters, a Sikorsky S-92 and S-76, with the capacity to fly 19 and 12 passengers respectively.
Bristow’s Head of Business Development, Mayowa Babatunde stated that the decision was arrived at after several safety and operational reviews.
According to her, the airline was satisfied with the state of the runway and conditions of the Minna Airport in Niger state.
She said, “We will use Minna to continue the provision of seamless charter air travel to Abuja for corporate and business organisations. We want to assure our clients of a continuous impeccable flight service for which the Bristow brand is synonymous.”
Bristow had introduced fixed-wing charter services to cater for the business traveller across Nigeria in November 2015.
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