Imo Air, the new airline owned by the Imo State Government, Tuesday, made its first landing at the Sam Mbakwe Cargo Airport, Owerri with its first set of passengers, and with the State governor, Rochas Okorocha, members of the State Executive Council and scores of Imo people at the airport to cheer the feat and witness the inauguration of the airline.
The 140-seater plane is to be operated for the State by DANA Airline as the state, the governor said, do not yet have the license to operate full-blown airline.
In his speech at the Airport during the airline launch, Governor Rochas Okorocha said it has been his dream and desire to position Imo State on the fast lane of development, prosperity and growth, adding that he won’t rest until that dream is realized.
The governor noted that people might wonder why the state was dabbling into airline business in a time of recession, but added that as far as he was concerned, “Imo is not affected by the much-talked about recession in the country.”
He maintained that the State has cleared arrears of pension and has paid salaries up to December 2016, and is about to commence the payment of January salary.
His words: “This is a happy moment in the state.
The aim of going into the air business is because I want to drive traffic to Imo State as Owerri is genuinely becoming the fastest developing city outside Abuja and Lagos.
For this, there is need for more airlines to cushion the effects of high traffic coming to the state.”
