By Daniel Eteghe
For over two years now, the domestic wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos has been handling only daylight flight operations due to the absence of  Air Field Lightings (AFL) that are supposed to enable the airport handle flights at night.

The inability of the agency, which responsibility it is to install this all-important equipment, remains a mystery which the aviation sector has not been able to unravel.

It was said that a former Minister of  Aviation, Mr. Babatunde Omotoba, failed in his responsibility to instal the Air Field Lighting (AFL) when the Runway 18 left was resurfaced and commissioned in December 2008, and this situation has made it impossible for aircraft to take off and land on the runway beyond 6pm.

This is becoming more worrisome each passing day as airline operators as well as other stakeholders in the industry kept complaining without any pragmatic measure being taken by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), to instal the AFL on the runway.

In a bid to cajole airlines and other stakeholders after many failed promises, FAAN carried out the de-rubberization of the runway on February 2, 2011, which most stakeholders said was not the right thing FAAN should have done. They  insisted that the installation of the AFL was the most appropriate thing to do instead of  de-rubberization.

De-rubberization is the process of removing rubber deposits on the runway in order to enhance landing grip of aircraft tyres. In other words, it is meant for better landing of aircraft on the runway.

The absence of the AFL at Runway 18L for over two years now, has continuously created a scenario where airlines find it difficult to operate from the domestic runway of the airport whenever it is dark or whenever  it rained heavily, thus making visibility difficult. What this means is that the airport can only carry out visual flight operations from 6am to 6pm on daily basis.

This development, most airline operators said, had adversely affected them as a result of the cost implication of having to taxi from the international wing of the airport to the domestic wing.

President of Aviation Round Table, ART, Captain Dele Ore, noted that the absence of air field lightings on Runway 18 Left of the domestic wing of the airport had exposed airline operators to danger as well as increased other operational costs as a result of the fuel often wasted for taxiing from the international wing to the domestic wing.

Captain Ore affirmed that with the recent hike in aviation fuel otherwise known as JET-A1, airlines would have to spend more whenever they operate flights beyond 6pm.

According to him, another effect of the absence of the AFL is the wearing away of aircraft tyres as well as other faults the aircraft would have generated from having to taxi from the international wing to the domestic wing of the airport during the dark.

This, he said, was a great threat to the safety of both the pilots and the passengers aboard the aircraft. Captain Ore noted that the absence of the AFL at runway 18 L was based on the inability of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, to complete the runway with the installation of the AFL, noting that this has exposed the lack of effective planning and execution of contracts by FAAN.

“Government has to sanction those responsible for such merry-go-round contract in public service. These failed contracts continue to expose airlines and passengers to danger,” he stated.

He, however, pointed out that he was disappointed at the way the Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Fidelia Njeze, went about the projects that could not improve the safety standards of the industry, stressing that aviation was not an hospitality business that called for merry-go-round.

“Earlier, FAAN had said that the contractors were busy installing the cables of the AFL at the runway, noting that installing the lighting system could take some time as some of the components were still being expected to arrive in the country,” the General Manager, Public Affairs of FAAN, Mr. Akin Olukunle  said in a recent interview.

But it is quite unfortunate that after all that was said, not even one contractor was seen at the site let alone the installation of the supposed cables that would be connected to the air field lightings.

It would be recalled that during the commissioning of the runway, the Former Minister had promised that the air field lightings would be installed in 10 months. After such promises by the minister, the Managing Director of FAAN, Mr. Richard Aisuebeogun, confirmed that contract for the project had been awarded and that the job would be delivered soon.

“We are working assiduously to mobilise the contractor; the contractor is in the process of being paid; he is just about signing the agreement with the authority. Once he signs the agreement in the next few days, he would be mobilized to  start work very soon.

He has given us a completion period of 10 months. The contractor has met with the airport authority and we have planned the time that he should be able to work effectively,” Aisuebeogun said in May 2009.

Almost eleven months went by before another Minister of Aviation was appointed in the person of Mrs. Fidelia Njeze, yet, the air field lightings in Runway 18 Left could still not be installed but the enthusiasm with which the new minister came into office, most aviation stakeholders particularly airline operators were optimistic that the air field lightings would be installed within three months as promised by Mrs. Njeze when she assumed office on April 6, 2010.

While on her first tour of facilities in the aviation industry to assess the level of infrastructure decay at both the domestic and the international wings of the airport in the company of heads of aviation agencies, she spoke very passionately about the changes she planned to bring into the industry. She told journalists that the aviation sector was grappling with myriad challenges not limited to dearth of or decaying operational infrastructure.

She had promised that plans were on to improve the quality of aviation services and that government was poised to address decaying infrastructure at the airports. Njeze also said that in the next three months, the Air Field Lightings (AFL) system would be installed at the domestic runway 18 Left at Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos.

Is it not a shame that in February 2011, we are still crying wolf about the non-installation of the air field lightings at Runway 18 Left at the domestic wing of the Lagos Airport? This is what Mrs. Njeze, the present Minister of Aviation, said would be completed in July 2010 and seven months after, nothing yet has been done.

This is indeed a shame. It will be recalled that the Obasanjo-led administration in 2006 approved the sum of N19.5billion as aviation intervention fund to secure the country’s skies after series of plane crashes that claimed many lives in the country. From this, a contract worth N3.56 billion was awarded to P.W Nigeria Limited in 2006 for the resurfacing and expansion of the runway by 150 metres.

It was also gathered that the cost of the air field lightings was not included in the contract sum. Rumour making the rounds is that the runway had been abandoned, following its non-inclusion in the N3.56billion contract that was awarded to P.W Nigeria Limited in 2006.

With this, one can categorically state that the Runway 18 Left Air Field Lightings (AFL) project has been abandoned despite several promises made by Mrs. Fidelia Njeze, that the project would be completed in three months.

Is it not a shame that an airport of this magnitude as strategic as the MMA runway does not have facilities to accommodate night flights? If safety must be attained and enhanced at the nation’s flagship, Murtala Muhammed Airport Lagos then, this is a serious issue which must be addressed now.