Osubi Airstrip is an aviation facility located in

Osubi Osubi is a town in Okpe Local Government Area of Delta state, southern Nigeria. The population is approximately over 8000 people. Osubi Airport is located in Osubi. There is a rapid infrastructural development around the airport region due to ...

, within Okpe Local Government, serving the city of

Effurun Effurun is a town and the headquarters of Uvwie Local Government Area in Delta State, Nigeria. It is an Urban center, densely populated with different infrastructural development. it borders it's twin city Warri, also serves as an entranc ...

Warri The city of Warri is an oil hub within South-South Nigeria and houses an annex of the Delta State Government House. Warri City is one of the major hubs of the petroleum industry in Nigeria. Warri and her twin city, Uvwie are the commercial c ...

and its environs in Delta State,

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. It is about northeast of the city.

is a town in

Okpe Okpe is a kingdom in Delta State, Nigeria. Today, it is also the name of a local government area. It is one of the many kingdoms that make up Urhobo tribe. Its capital is Orerokpe. The kingdom plays host to the Osubi Airport (also known as War ...

Local Government Area of Delta state, Southern Nigeria. The runway length does not include a

displaced threshold A displaced threshold or DTHR is a runway threshold located at a point other than the physical beginning or end of the runway. The portion of the runway behind a displaced threshold may be used for takeoff in either direction and landings from the ...

/overrun on each end, making the total paved length . The Osubi

non-directional beacon A non-directional beacon (NDB) or non-directional radio beacon is a radio beacon which does not include directional information. Radio beacons are radio transmitters at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. NDB are ...

(Ident: OS) is located on the field.

Airstrip

Prior to construction of the airport, a small airstrip had been created next to a congested part of the city of Warri during the 1960s. The runway was approximately in length. There was a small terminal building and an aircraft hangar. Small charter aircraft of Aero Contractors and other firms provided service to and from Lagos airport and other Nigerian cities.

Construction of the airport

Piper PA-27 Aztec 5N-ACU Aero Contr Warri 14

The federal government first drew up plans to build an airport here in the late 1970s to allow easy transport into Warri by air because of its status as an oil city, but the plan languished for over two decades. Meanwhile, people coming in and out of Warri continued to use the old airstrip in a congested part of the city. The airstrip could only accommodate small aircraft on its short runway, so that whenever a plane took off or landed, the authorities had to close off an adjacent road to traffic so that a passing car would not be clipped. Finding it harder and harder to conduct business with the old airstrip,

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

decided to build one on its own. The airport was commissioned and open for commercial use on 1 April 1999 with Shell (SPDC) landing a modern Dornier 328 and Aero Contractors 50-passenger Dash aircraft at the Osubi airport. Since the airstrip opened for public use, it is reckoned to be one of the busiest aviation facilities in Nigeria and it is being operated in partnership with other oil companies. The maintenance and facilities are among the best in the country and traffic flow is one of the highest. In the first six months of the opening of Osubi Airstrip, more than 100,000 passengers passed through just as it handled 3,500 aircraft movements. The Delta State government is making plans with the airstrip operator Shell in upgrading and building a longer second runway of due to the increase in air traffic.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

These data show number of passengers movements into the airport, according to the

Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is a service organization statutorily charged to manage all Commercial Airports in Nigeria and provide service to both passenger and cargo airlines. Generally, to create conditions for the development i ...

's Aviation Sector Summary Reports.

References

External links