United Nigeria Airlines Company Ltd, operated by Private Airlines Services Ltd has said there is no definite date yet to commence operations at the Osubi Airport.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika on Monday granted approval for Osubi airport, located in Okpe LGA of Delta State to resume operations.
He stated that the airlines gave assurance to operate the route immediately after approval is given for the airport to reopen.
However, when contacted, the management of United Nigeria airlines said “there hasn’t been a definite date of commencement of operation yet”.
Earlier, Independent had reported that the managers of Osubi airport still owe aviation agencies several billions of naira from services rendered to them by the parastatals.
According to the report, the managers still owe the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) about N864 million for air traffic services despite the withdrawal of services by the agency over a year ago.
It was gathered that the managers also owe the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) about N1 billion for the provision of security, aerodrome rescue and firefighting services over the years.
However, United Nigeria denied there were challenges impeding them from commencing operations at the airport.
“We don’t have any challenges to worry about as we will soon commence operation but there hasn’t been a definite date of commencement of operation yet,” the airlines stated in an email response to TNG.
TNG gathered that a gentleman’s agreement with aviation agencies to pay back the debts had been reached.