The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has sent out Notice To Airmen (NOTAM) to airlines and other stakeholders regarding the plan to repair some portions of the international runway of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos.
The runway which is also known as 18R/36L would be shut down today and on Tuesday for the repair of some of its portions, according to NAMA’s NOTAM.
More details to note: The NOTAM specifically informed airlines and other stakeholders that the runway would be closed from 000-0500 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time); that is between 1:00 am to 6:00 am Nigerian Time.
It was learnt that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) had planned to repair some portions of the runway, which have gone bad in recent times.
Though FAAN is the manager of the airports, NAMA is permitted to issue NOTAM to stakeholders when the need arises.
Reason for the notice: Nairametrics gathered that even if no flights would be expected during the period the runway would be closed, it was still necessary to issue NOTAM so that the global air transport industry would be updated on the status of the runway during that period in case of a flight emergency.
“Aircraft under stress, which may be flying across Nigerian airspace may want to make an emergency landing on that runway and the pilot will click his system and know that within that given time the runway cannot take any aircraft; unless it is very critical. This is a standard operating procedure, which everyone knows in the industry,” a FAAN source said.
