The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has approved four airports as Special Economic Zones, a statement by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said on Thursday.

The approved airports are Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos; Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers; Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

“I am very glad to announce that Mr President has Approved our four International Airports as Special Economic Zones. These are Lagos, Kano, Abuja & Port Harcourt. Our roadmap working,” he tweeted.

The PUNCH reported that the minister, on Wednesday, promised Nigerians that the national airliner will swing into full operation by the first quarter of 2022.

He said this while attending to questions from State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said, “In this 2021, we will try to do all the needful and probably we intend to start operations somewhere around first quarter 2022.

“It is still in top gear, we are coming back to council, hopefully within the next two weeks to present the memo on the national carrier.

“We went to council to approve the outline business case for the carrier and then the council raised some questions and asked us to go and do the memo again and bring it back.

“So, once it comes back and the outline business case is approved by council, then of course, we will now go to the full business case, which is now going to the market and then establishing the national carrier.”