FAAN Records
17.2% Increase
In Passenger,
Aircraft Movement
The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said passenger and aircraft traffic figure at all the airports managed by the authority put together soared as against media reports that the traffic declined in the first two quarters of 2009.
Mr. Akin Olukunle, general manager, Public Affairs of FAAN, said passengers and aircraft traffic at all the airports witnessed significant growth in the first and second quarter of 2009 in compassion with figures of the same period in 2008.
he said the latest figure which covers the period between January to June, 2009 shows a 17.2 per cent growth, as against the same period in 2008 adding that details of statistics show that passenger traffic figure from the 21 airports stood at 5,777,598 as against 4, 930, 509 recorded in the same period last year.
He explained further that aircraft movement figure also showed an increase of 12.3 per cent growth, rising to 107,320 movements in the same period under consideration, as against 95,575 movements recorded last year.
“A breakdown of statistics for both the domestic and international traffic also confirms this growth.
This contradicts recent repot in some publications which claimed that passenger traffic went down to 3,343,531 in the first two quarters of 2009. On the domestic route, the airports recorded passenger traffic of 4,278,081 as against 3, 592, 725 reported in those publications” Olukunle pointed out that the aircraft figure on the domestic route for the first and second quarters of 2009 also showed a considerable growth of 16 per cent, rising to 92, 369 movements in compassion with 79,434 movements recorded in the same period of 2008.
He stated that international passenger traffic figure also shows that there was a definite growth during the same period, with an increase of 12.1 per cent, when compared with the figure in the corresponding period of last year.
He however said there was negative growth in the international aircraft traffic as a result of the airlines using bigger aircraft, despite the fact that passenger traffic during the same period witnessed considerable increase.
Orphans Seek Comprehensive Education, Health Programmes
Some Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) recently called on government at all levels to provide them education and healthcare programmes.
A cross section of the children told Newsday in Bauchi that such programmes would guarantee their rights and access to child survival and development services.
Master Emmanuel Nandom, 13, said orphans and vulnerable children were exposed to life threatening situations due to neglect by governments at all levels.
Nandom said most of them were denied access to quality education and health services due to the absence of specific programmes designed to take care of their needs.
`` Many of us are not going to school because we do not have money for fees and books.
``Some of us who are able to complete primary school could not go to the next level because we have no money and nobody to look after us.
``We are calling on government to provide us with proper education, health and psychological support.
Another orphan, Ikilima Adamu, 12, urged the Bauchi State Government to include orphans in its vocational and skills acquisition programme.
He said ``the older ones among us can learn a trade or something that they can use to sustain themselves.''
Responding, Hajiya Bahijja Mahmud, Special Adviser to the Governor on OVC, said government had initiated various programmes to cater for their needs.
She said the state government had established OVC desk offices in all the 20 local government areas of the state and registered more than 750,000 OVCs for its support programmes.
Mahmud said seven key intervention programmes were initiated to enhance the lives of OVCs in the areas of education, health, shelter, food and nutrition as well as legal and psycho-social support.
``More than 18,000 OVCs have so far benefitted from the shelter programme and more than 3,000 of them had benefitted
from the education programme,'' she added.
