The Management expects Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has apologised to airline operators and passengers for diversion of their flights from Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano to Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos because of runway lighting that occurred in the Kano airport.
FAAN in a statement by its Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Abdullahi Yakubu-Funtua however said the service has been restored.
Funtua explained that the glitch which occurred on Runway 06/ 24 at about 1600hrs on July 15, 2023, was discovered after the daily maintenance had been carried out.
He said the management of the airport therefore decided to call for activation of a Notice To Air Men (NOTAM) to allow for repairs after efforts to made to restore power failed.
“On July 15, 2023 at about 1600hrs , the airfield maintenance team of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) observed that the runway lighting would not come on after the scheduled daily maintenance work of replacing old and weak Airfield cables with new ones at runway 06/24.
“The maintenance team immediately initiated fault finding procedures along the cable route to identify the problem and restore power to the airfield lighting circuit.
“It was however observed that the entire runway circuit was affected , leading to the failure of the Runway 06/24 edge light , the Taxiway Alpha edge light , PAPI and signage .
“As at 1900hrs local time, the fault had yet to be isolated and power supply to the runway could not be restored leaving Runway in a total blackout which affected night operations.
“Arriving flights had to be diverted to alternate airports.
“At 2300hrs, after all efforts to restore power supply to the runway failed, Operations department initiated a NOTAM action for the closure of Runway 06/24 between the hours of 2300hrs on July 15, to 07:00hrs of July 16, 2023,”Funtua explained.
The FAAN which regreted inconvenience caused by the diversion of the two Kano bound aircraft to Lagos, due to the unserviceability of the runway lights of Runway 06/24, said, ” night operations has since resumed as new cables were installed on Sunday, July 16 , 2023 leading to restoration of all runway lights before commencement of night operations.”
