By   Babalola Yusuf

  Date Published 27/10/2015

 

Few days after Nigerian airports ranked the worst in the world, Nigerian NewsDirect investigation had shown that most Nigerian airports operate without airfield runway lighting.

Apart from the three Nigerian International airports – Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja and the Port Harcourt International Airport that have functional airfield lighting, relatively few other airports in Nigeria have a functional lighting for night departure and arrival. Runway lighting allowed for operations in the dark or at times of low visibility forms an integral part of any runway at a modern airport.

A standard airfield lighting runway must possess details, including colour, intensity and extent, of the runway threshold lights and any wing bars; the runway edge lights; the runway end lights and any wing bars.

Others are any runway touchdown zone lights; any runway centre line lights and any stopway lights.

But in Nigeria, airports with no runway lighting include the Enugu Airport, Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar,  Yola, Kaduna Airports, Sultan Saddik Abubakar Airport Sokoto, Yakubu Gowon Airport – Jos, Sam Mbakwe Airport – Owerri, Katsina Airport. Others are Minna Airport, Ilorin Airport, Ibadan Airport, Akure Airport, Benin Airport, Makurdi Airport, Zaria Airport, Warri Airport and Bauchi Airport.

These above mentioned airports operate 12 hours daily due to absence of airfield lighting at the runways.

According to investigations, when it is 6pm in the evening, no aircraft takes off or arrive these airports because they lack runway with airfield and approach lighting, which could guide the pilot to land on the runways and also taxi to the apron in the night?

Further investigations have shown that Nigerian domestic carriers lose over N1.5 billion annually to lack of runway lighting. The airlines that were supposed to work 24 hours operate for 12 hours because there is no lighting to make them work round the clock.

Also, the absence of lighting at runways also compromises safety standards of the airports.

In many parts of the world, it is basic that an airport runway has accompanying airfield and approach lighting, which guides the pilot to land on the runway and also taxi to the apron in the night.

But in Nigeria, some of the airports which received many flights daily do not have airfield lighting, thus limiting operations to such airports.

Also, the economic implications robs off negatively on the airlines because instead of operating three flights daily to some airports they have to operate two times because by 6:00 pm such airports are closed for flights and practically flights could go on for hours into the night if there is airfield lighting.

However, an Industry expert who craved anonymity said aircraft ideally should be operating for 18 hours daily but some of them are forced to operate for only eight hours thereby underutilising the capacity.

The expert who worked with one of the leading airlines in Nigeria told our correspondent that lack of airfield lighting limits operation of airlines in the country from daylight to sunset.

He said, “if the company leased or rented the airplanes, the company has to pay whether it operated it or not.ý Also, what Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), knows how to do best is to collect landing fees, parking fees, rents, concession fees and utilities fees one due or  another from airlines but no amenities to substantiate the money collected from airlines.”

However, speaking with our correspondent, the General Manager, Public Relations, FAAN Yakubu Datti said most Nigeria airports have airfield lighting.

“Most of our airports have lighting we don’t turn them on because we don’t want to burn energy but use it when airlines are being expected.

They give us notice in advance and we make it available for them.”

- See more at: http://newsdirectonline.com/newstory.php?ID=13253&m=1#sthash.twJoI60a.dpuf

holy shit

Naija.. I doff my fedora hat

Only In Nigeria!

They use touchlights to land aat nite and the plane get head ligghts too


Btw pictures or ahdonbilivit

Sue the living hell our of them

Willfully endangering lives

Negligence

. And everything