Nigeria reopens Abuja airport after six-week shutdown

Nigeria reopened the capital's airport in Abuja on Tuesday, officials said, following a six-week closure for runway repairs that disrupted international air traffic to the country. During the shutdown, authorities diverted flights to Kaduna, a provincial airport 160 km away, where carriers including British Airways, Lufthansa and South African Airways refused to fly on security grounds. Ethiopian Airlines was the only foreign carrier to use Kaduna airport during the closure. Other international airlines continued to fly into Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos. Abuja is the political nerve centre of Africa's most populous nation and a major business hub in the continent's biggest economy. "Abuja runway 100 percent completed and certified by Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority. Consequently the airport is open for operations," aviation minister Hadi Sirika said in a message posted on Twitter.<br/>