Chaos, flight disruptions over power outage at Lagos airport

 

Nigeria’s busiest airport, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos again witnessed power outage at the aerodrome. The problem caused major disruption of flight services to airlines.

 

Arik, Air Maroc, Lufthansa, Delta, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Air France, Delta, British Airways, South African Airways among others expressed disappointment over the problem that has lingered for more than four years.

 

Power outage at the Lagos airport is a recurring problem and one that has brought shame to the country. The problem was said to have gone on for two days, that is, Saturday and Sunday.

 

The power outage was yet to be restored, thereby causing serious problems to carriers with many of them finding it extremely difficult to profile passengers, leading to late departure of virtually all the airlines.

 

Many were seen using flashlights to check in passengers and for security profiling. Many of them who spoke to our correspondent, decried  the appalling situation calling on the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to quickly look for a solution to the incessant power outage at the airport.

 

Spokesman for FAAN, Yakubu Dati said there was a power outage from PHCN and the airport was on their independent power supply.

 

“However when power was restored, the surge adversely affected the k16 transformer that serves the Air-bridges and rendered them un-serviceable. This adversely affected operations of departing flights. The heavy rainfall further delayed attempts by engineers to effect repairs immediately.” He said

 

It was gathered that as result of the serious power outage, chaos took over as many carriers warned of security consequences over the issue as some of the equipment could not be powered by the generator set provided by FAAN.

 

Meanwhile, FAAN  has apologised to passengers, airlines and the general public for the inconvenience caused by this development , adding that efforts are being made to find a lasting solution.

 

The recent embarrassing power outage at the MMA is one too many. In 2010, the Senate directed its Committee on Aviation to thoroughly investigate the circumstances leading to incessant power outage at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos and recommended appropriate sanction against those found to have been culpable for the prolonged power outage.

This followed a motion by Senator Anyim Ude and eight other senators. Senator Ude in the motion noted that Nigerians and non-Nigerian passengers alike were always subjected to traumatic experience at the airport, following a four-hour darkness at both the arrival and departure halls of the nation’s prime airport.

 According to the chairman of the Committee on Aviation, despite several prompting by the Senate urging the appropriate aviation agencies to live up to their responsibilities, none of the nine resolutions passed by the Senate has been implemented.

He expressed concern that as a result of inefficiency and corruption, FAAN which has a potential to generate over N3 billion a month, can only generate a little over N1billion monthly and spends over N800 million on monthly salaries/wages leaving little for maintenance of facilities.