Ahead of Wednesday’s re-opening of the Abuja Airport for resumption of flights, the managing director of the of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr. Saleh Dunoma said the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority will have to certify the airport to ensure the runway conforms to standard.
Speaking in Abuja, Dunoma said 100 per cent of the work including the rehabilitation of the runway had been completed “but NCAA has to certify that what we have done is in accordance with their standards. If they do that, we will bring in the traffic.”
He said FAAN had already written to NCAA to carry out the preliminary inspection.
“If there is any observation as a result of the inspection, we will now make sure we carry out corrections,” he said.
He added: “No doubt about that, we will open it as scheduled. We have been working with NCAA throughout the period, they have been making corrections. But for formality, we need to check and make sure that all the necessary corrections meet the requirement of the civil aviation authority.
“All the critical items of work are 100 per cent except may be two items, which of course are the markings and the cleaning. Other critical item which is not works but the inspection by the NCAA who will come and certify that the repairs that had been carried out are satisfactory and give us the go ahead to bring in traffic to Abuja. Asphalt work is 100 per cent; markings have reached almost 70 per cent, the airfield lighting system has reached 80 per cent.
“There is additional work which has nothing to do with this repair but we are seizing the opportunity of the closure of the airport to do. This has to do with the airport excellence in safety-related items. We are now levelling all the airfield lightings’ locations, all the installations and flash with the ground surface. In case of any skidding, there will not be concrete projection above the ground surface.”
On the calibration of navigational aids, the managing director said they were not tampered with in the cause of the work.
“We just worked on the runway. What we tampered with are the airfield lightings and they are being returned to the same position. The runway does not need calibration. All we need to check is to make sure there is 100 per cent illumination. Calibration is done periodically. When the time comes for calibration, the appropriate authority will calibrate the instrument landing system,” he said.
