Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
Stakeholders Knock FAAN on the partial closure of the airport
Enugu – Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has announced that there will be skeletal operations at the airport in order to commence repair works on the runway of Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
In a statement issued yesterday, signed by the General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Mrs. Yakubu Henrietta, the agency stated that, with effect from 14th December 2017, the Authority will embark on a palliative repair work on the Runway of Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
According to FAAN, the first phase of the repair work commenced on the 14th to 21st December 2017, while the second phase will be from the 27th December 2017 to 4th January 2018.
FAAN further directed that, consequently, the runway will open for operations from 0700 hours local time till 1500 hours local time on the proposed dates.
“The palliative repairs can only sustain the landing of Boeing 737 aircraft weight and not for the landing of bigger aircraft that foreign airlines who are flying into the airport use,” said Ojikutu.
“If FAAN does not want to continue to waste its scarce fund on the runway, or cause a disaster at the airport, it should prevail on the political interests that opened the airport to international flights to allow runway to be closed for a complete reconstruction and upgrade its Load Classification Number (LCN) from 50 to at least 80 if not 100.
The agency equally apologized for any inconvenience this action might cause all their customers.
Reacting to the closure, concerned stakeholders in Nigeria’s aviation sector criticised the decision of FAAN to partially close the airport.
Aviation Roundtable (ART) expressed worry on the timing of the shutdown of the airport for repair around the Yuletide season where traffic is at its peak. They also faulted the decision to do a palliative work and not a total maintenance of the runway.
FAAN was also criticised for failing to disclose how much it was investing on the repair of the Enugu Airport runway.
John Ojikutu and Olu Ohunayo who are top executives of the Aviation Round Table (ART) told journalists that the palliative repair was a waste of the country’s scarce resources.
“The palliative repairs can only sustain the landing of Boeing 737 aircraft weight and not for the landing of bigger aircraft that foreign airlines who are flying into the airport use,” said Ojikutu.
“If FAAN does not want to continue to waste its scarce fund on the runway, or cause a disaster at the airport, it should prevail on the political interests that opened the airport to international flights to allow runway to be closed for a complete reconstruction and upgrade its Load Classification Number (LCN) from 50 to at least 80 if not 100. A word is enough for the wise,” Ojikutu added.
“Before the rushed designation of the airport for international flights (to operate) was implemented, was the strength of the runway not factored in the process?” queried Ohunayo.
“We had palliative repairs about twice if not thrice on Abuja runway first in 2010, and then in 2014/2015 before the 2017 total rehabilitation. Those repairs before the 2017 rehabilitation were a waste of resources, and is that what we are planning to repeat for the Enugu airport runway?” he added.
But the FAAN spokeswoman however apologized to all users of the Enugu airport for whatever inconvenience the repair of the runway may cause them.
