Chinedu Eze
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has confirmed that the international runway of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, known as Runway 18R/36L, would be shut for repairs.
The Runway would be closed on January 22 and January 23 for the rehabilitation of some portions of the facility.
THISDAY gathered, however, that the shut down would be done during the lean hours, when there would be few or zero flight traffic.
A source from NAMA disclosed that NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) has been issued to that effect and that the runway would be closed from 000-0500 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time); that is between 1:00 am to 6:00 am Nigerian time.
An official of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) explained to THISDAY that even if no flights would be expected at the period the runway would be closed, the issuing of NOTAM was very important so that global air transport industry would be updated on the status of the runway at that period in case of flight emergency.
“Aircraft under stress, which may be flying across Nigerian airspace may want to make emergency landing on that runway and the pilot will click his system and know that within that given time the runway cannot take any aircraft; unless it is very critical. This is standard operating procedure, which everyone knows in the industry.”
Although airports are under FAAN management, but NOTAM is issued by NAMA, which is in charge of communications in Nigeria’s airspace disseminated through the Lagos and Kano Flight Information Regions.
