LAGOS - Following several meeting and public hearings held in Abuja, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) have assured that the newly refurbished domestic runway at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos would soon be re-opened for use.
It will be recall that the runway, popularly referred to as runway 18Left which service domestic airline operations was closed down for refurbishment by the FAAN two years ago had caused so much pain to pilots and air travelers.
Addressing newsmen at the FAAN Airside Drivers’ Training Programme in Lagos, the Managing Director of FAAN, Mr. Richard Aisuebeogun and the Director General of the NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren, made separate revelations about the runway that was shut down about two years ago to effect rehabilitation.
Aisuebeogun noted that the concerned technical team and the contractors had met with him and had worked out an implementative plan towards the completion and the reopening of the runway at least for daylight operations.
His words, “The concerned technical team and the contractors have met with me and we have worked out an implementation plan towards the completion and the reopening of the runway at least for daylight operations”, he said.
On the issue of power failure at the airports, the FAAN boss said the issue had improved as the airports authority had been restored into the dedicated power line that can boast its power even if not always, adding that one of the problems that caused the outages was obsolete generating sets, but said they were being overhauled for effectiveness.
According to him; “Power has improved also from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), and we have also been restored into the dedicated power line, also called the priority line because the airport was disengaged by PHCN but now we have been restored and we now have a steady power supply, which although may not be regular but it will support our generators.”
Speaking in the same vein, the Director General of the NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren said that domestic flights had to go across to international runway to take off but expressed displeasure.
He noted that FAAN was working towards ensuring that the trend is reversed.
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