A burgeoning Nigerian airline – Air Peace – made history on Friday as the first airline to land at the Anambra International and Local Cargo and Passenger Airport, Umueri.
Two Air Peace aircraft landed at different time. Air Peace private jet landed at exactly 2:24 pm and a commercial flight at 2:44pm. The third, a private jet owned by the chairman of Nest Oil, Mr. Ernest Obiejesi, popularly known as Obi Jackson, landed at 3:30pm.
At the airport, Governor Willie Obaino praised the CEO of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, for the feat.
He says: “Our brother Allen Onyema volunteered the aircrafts for this air landing test at no cost to us.
“We waited patiently for this day and it is sunrise in Anambra State today. The airport is the most audacious project and the most remarkable too of all my projects.
“We worked on this airport during the pandemic, and we rose above the gloom and doom of COVID-19 to build this airport in 15 months. The most interesting thing for me is that Anambra did not borrow a Kobo to build it.”
Onyema said: “I shed tears when I landed here because many didn’t believe that this day would come.
Many people condemned me when I talked about the pace of work here. I thank the Federal Government for the approval of this airport and the test landing. It is the fastest approval that has ever been made, and I believe this is because of the quality of work.
“This is the first time any plane can do a test land with a big plane. We brought a small one and a big one here. My triple seven aircraft went abroad, else I would have brought it to prove a point; this airport can land an Airbus, which is the biggest airplane.”