By Chinedu Eze
Former Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) who is the Deputy Managing Director of Arik Air, Captain Ado Sanusi, has said that the runway of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja is a threat to air safety, stressing that Nigeria should count itself lucky that in the past two years major accident had not taken place at the airport.
Sanusi who is also a seasoned pilot, who has landed at the airport for several years, said the runway had been in deplorable situation and if it was not closed for major repairs Nigerians should wait for air crash to happen, which would put an end to the present debate.
He noted, however, that instead of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to declare the airport unsafe and therefore close it for repairs, the Ministry of Transport was deciding the closure, which unfortunately had made the decision a political debate.
Sanusi said all the airport closures due to safety concerns in the past were decided by NCAA, which has the prerogative to do that, noting that although the Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika is an aviator, but he is seen by members of the National Assembly as a politician and that is why there is on-going argument over the airport closure.
“There is a fundamental flaw over who decided that the airport should be closed. That is the responsibility of NCAA as the regulator of the aviation industry, which decides the safety standard of an airport, the airworthiness of an aircraft, the qualification of a pilot or cabin crew and it is NCAA that should decide whether the airport should be closed or not and from our experience, the continued use of that runway is a tragedy waiting to happen,” Sanusi said.
The former Managing Director of NAMA gave example with the banking sector and said that if the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) closed a bank. there was no other authority that had the right to direct the bank to reopen, except CBN.
He recalled many years ago when Air France flight landed on cattle at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa and noted that NCAA closed the airport for safety reasons against the wishes of both the state government, airlines and even the then Ministry of Aviation.
“No one should question the decision of NCAA because it has been given the right by law to take such decision and if NCAA has taken the decision to close the Abuja airport there is no way it would have attracted the on-going debate. We shall be going to a dangerous area if we politicise what borders on safety in the aviation industry.
“If NCAA announces the closure of the airport no airline can fly to that place because no insurance can cover such flight. Once it is closed the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria or NAMA will issue a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen), which will be circulated all over the world so no flight can land at the airport,” Sanusi also said.
He stated that the runway had 20 years life span, which expired in 2002 and 14 years after the airport was still being used without any major rehabilitation and described the runway as accident waiting to happen.
Meanwhile, aviation labour unions, including the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), the Air Transport Service Senior Staff Association (ATSSSAN) and the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) have called on the federal government in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari to introduce partial closure of the airport instead of outright closure because of economic considerations.
But industry experts posit that partial closure would not allow comprehensive work to be done at the runway and the suggestions that half of the runway should be closed was not tenable because aircraft that overshoots the runway may crash on workers and others at the airport.
