Following the shutdown of international runways, 18R and 36L, at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos for two months for repairs by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Foreign airlines may be faced with additional costs while passengers would experience flight delays.
FAAN had in a statement on Monday, announced that the runway Taxiway B-18L will be used instead for all flight operations until the maintenance is done.
As a result of the development, aviation experts anticipate increase in cost of airlines due to increase in runway and flight delays.
An Aviation engineer Engr. Ahmadu Hadi, while making clarification of the implication of the development, said that take-off and landing will be done by all airlines on the alternative runway.
He said, “Airlines will be moved to the alternative runway and every operation will now be done on the alternative runway until they conclude the repair work. There will be delays in operation of airlines because there will be more frequencies and more airlines will be making use of the alternative runway.”
“It will take longer for another flight to take off because there will be more frequencies and there will be delay in take-off because more airlines will now take off and land on the same runway,” he stated.
Corroborating Ahmadu’s stance, the chief executive officer, Aglow Aviation, Tayo Ojuri, said eight weeks is a long time, especially with the onset of summer and rainy seasons.
He stated further that a runway that was earlier used for lesser flights, would now take a higher number of flights due to the repair of the runway.
“Obviously, it will cause delays because the taxi time will likely increase and they will burn more aviation fuel. When they land, we need to know where they will land, reduce their speed and turn back to the terminal. Yes, they will burn more fuel and cause delays but we need to as well see the chart to give an objective opinion,” Ojuri stated.
He said further, “Eight weeks is a long time; now that we are running into the summer and rainy season. What used to take, for instance, 10 flights will take all international flights coming into Lagos, so naturally that gives to that saying that there will be delay and cost incurred.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said flight operations would not be disrupted as a result of the ongoing repairs being carried out at the international runway of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMIA), Lagos, known as Runway 18R.
The acting General Manager, Corporate Affairs, FAAN, Faithful Hope-Ivbaze, said the airport runway was not closed while repairs were going on and that flight operations have continued without any disruption because of the strategic way the work is going on.
“Flight operations have continued. Only a part of the runway is going through maintenance work. There is no disruption of flight operations at all. Flights are still landing and taking off,” Hope-Ivbaze said.
Note that Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) had shut down the same international runway for a few hours last year for maintenance.
As a consequence, night operations returned to the second runway of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, otherwise known as runway 18L, 18 years after night operations were last carried out on the facility.
In August last year, FAAN shut the facility to all flight operations for the installation of the category three Airfield Ground Lighting system on the runway, allowing all flight operations to use runway 18/Right usually used by international airlines.