The governor said this while presenting the 2019 budget proposal to the state House of Assembly in Asaba.
“The management of Air Peace Airline has indicated interest to make Asaba Airport its operational hub where it can quickly build its maintenance hangers.
“We have made considerable progress in our quest to make Asaba Airport an international gateway following the successful completion of the runway rehabilitation work.
“The airport has been approved and upgraded to a Category 6 Airport to receive and dispatch large aircraft by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.
“Nigeria’s premier carrier, Air Peace Airline, resumed daily scheduled flight operations in and out of Asaba Airport on Monday, 8th October, 2018,” Okowa said.
The governor said that plans to concession the airport had also reached advanced stage.
“We are confident that the concession will ensure that we realise our objective of turning the airport into a mega commercial and travel hub in this part of the country in record time in order to boost our economy and create more jobs for our people.
“We have received strong interests from both local and international investors in the concession exercise and we expect the airport to be fully concessioned in 2019.
“In this regard, we published a formal “Request for Proposal” in national newspapers on Tuesday, 9th October, 2018,” he said.