Five years after the unveiling of the rehabilitated domestic runway of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, the Federal Government will, in a matter of days, install mobile airfield lighting so that aircraft can land there in the night.

Domestic carriers have clamoured for the installation of airfield lighting on this runway, known as Runway 18L, because during the evening and in the night when the runway is not allowed to operate, the airlines lose money on wear and tear of their aircraft and on fuel burnt while the aircraft taxi from the international runway to the domestic terminal (MMA2) or the General Aviation Terminal (GAT).

THISDAY learnt that it is the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) which is now in charge of providing airfield lighting at the nation’s airports that facilitated the project and that the mobile airfield lighting would be an interim measure until a permanent one would be installed next year.

It is not only the Lagos airport that will benefit from this runway lighting as NAMA has planned to install the facility at other busy airports to ease air services and improve safety, especially at Yuletide.

In addition, NAMA has also installed digitalised airfield lighting at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja as back-up in case there is disruption of the fixed lighting which was installed recently at the airport.

A NAMA source told THISDAY: “We are deploying emergency airfield lighting to the Runway 18L and other airports as back up to the conventional ones while we still continue to work on installing permanent airfield lighting at the airports that do not have them now.
“Factory acceptance tests have been conducted in Dorset, the United Kingdom and we are installing them any time from now. We expect the shipment of the equipment and immediately they arrive we start installation,” the source said.

[b]Nigerian domestic carriers are said to lose over N1.5 billion annually to lack of runway lighting, which also compromises safety standards of the airports.

The former Managing Director of Aero Contractors, Akin George, explained to THISDAY in a recent interview that lack of runway lighting in Lagos alone costs the airline N60 million a year and lack of night operations at the other airports in the country also cost the airline $35 million (about N5.454 billion).

George said: “Airport infrastructure needs to be overhauled; lack of runway lights in Lagos alone cost Aero N60 million a year, lack of night operations at the airports is a loss of $35 million and lack of lighting of taxiways means a drastic reduction is safety of passengers. Failure of runway lights in Lagos, Abuja, Enugu and Calabar has cost Aero an additional N40 million in 2012 alone.”

Also the Chairman of IRS Airlines, Alhaji Isyaku Rabiu, once commented on the effect of not installing airfield lighting on the domestic runway of Lagos airport.

He said there were many problems of infrastructure at the airports, remarking that in the last five years, domestic carriers could not land after 7:00 pm at the domestic airport runway 18L in Lagos.

“We have to land at the international airport. That, you may think is not much but it is a lot of money that we waste in doing that. It cost money on your wear and tear, on tyres, on your brakes, on your airplanes and on your engines and fuel burnt is excessive.

“Sometimes, you get held up at the threshold because there are so many airplanes coming and it is practically almost being done manually. And it takes time waiting there burning fuel and wasting a lot of time. For the airline and for the passengers, it is a negative thing[/b].”

taharqa: Oh, well well @OP. Just saw this now straight from the mills:



http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/5-years-after-mma2-gat-get-runway-lighting/133515/

The lighting of the domestic airports runways, which you complained about is been done as well after many years of failed promises from previous govts.....

taharqa: This new Min of Aviation and d FG are very silently TRANSFORMING d Aviation in less than 2 yrs away from d pitiable state it was b4 now: the remodeling/reconstruction of 11 of d 22 airports in Nigeria unda a year most of whom had nt bn touchd in d last 20yrs (and where in truly disgraceful states) tru utilizing d BASA fund dat oda Mins hv bn accussd of misappropiating previously; plans to build 5 top international terminal and aerotropolis ('airport cities') from loans obtaind by d Chinese; the floating of private sector lead National carrier on d way very soon; the removal of duties and VAT from d import of aircrafts and its parts in order to save huge costs for d airlines and improve quality of aircrafts in d country (a key demand of stakeholders for d longest time); the completion of d TRACON project dat ensures total radar coverage for aircrafts in d airspace of Nigeria dat startd and crawling since Obj's time has bn completd; the sophisticatd VHF system dat ensures effective communicatn bw pilots and control towers in d airspace of Nigeria also completd (a new channel was only recently introducd cos of increasd traffic); the Automation of payment system bw FAAN and d airlines plus oda airport users, which has significantly increasd revenue collectd by FAAN, reducd systemic corruptn and stop d former trend of airlines owing FAAN huge sum; purchase of mini Simulator for aviatn school in zaria and sm oda reforms there; and now provisn of alternative power supply system for airport navigational systems AND lighting of domestic runways at night etc etc...... These are sm of d tins dat most ppl hv bn complaining about b4 now and which previous govts didnt do, yet sm persons wud open dier 'yeye' mouths saying 'GEJ isnt doing anything'. Those ppl who hv taken advantage of mess dat GEJ inheritd and d lag time that must be spent b4 d very many projects that are on going in diff aspects of d economy (which are meant to clear these inheritd mess) completes, wud hide dier heads in deep shame starting from nx yr as these projects come to fuition; as a mata of fact and as a poster here usuali say: sm of them wud commit 'suicide' pretty soon....

Ricky_Ross: Very good development in the aviation sector.
If JEG can fix the aviation, energy, agriculture and education sectors of our economy then he is surely going to get 70% of votes in 2015.

Ricky_Ross: Very good development in the aviation sector.
If JEG can fix the aviation, energy, agriculture and education sectors of our economy then he is surely going to get 70% of votes in 2015.

Ucheosefoh: u 4get power without it oda sectors are useless

Ricky_Ross: Very good development in the aviation sector.
If JEG can fix the aviation, energy, agriculture and education sectors of our economy then he is surely going to get 70% of votes in 2015.

Eltonluigi: Is this news? And are we 'spose to be celebrating? How many Nigerians is the airport serving? Smh!

Eltonluigi: Is this news? And are we 'spose to be celebrating? How many Nigerians is the airport serving? Smh!

Eltonluigi: Is this news? And are we 'spose to be celebrating? How many Nigerians is the airport serving? Smh!