Airline operators to incur losses as FAAN shuts down Lagos Airport runways

Two runways in the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) have been shutdown by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

FAAN, in a post on Twitter on Monday, said the runways 18R and 36L at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport will be closed for eight weeks.

“This is to notify the public that runway 18R/36L of the Murtala Muhammed Int’l Airport, Lagos has been closed for 8 weeks for Maintenance work to carried out. Taxi way B-18L will be used for all flight operations,” FAAN wrote in the tweet.

The closure is expected to raise the cost of operation for airline operators after experiencing the same hike in expenses in June 2022 when FAAN closed the runways 18L/36R of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).

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Ripples Nigeria understands that the closure for renovation lasted for 90 days, during which airline operators had to spend more on fuel costs and recorded additional flight and taxi time.

In a statement to FAAN managing director, Rabiu Yadudu in July 2022, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) president, Abdulmunaf Yunusa, said, “The closure of the main domestic runway of MMA automatically adds an additional 10-15 percent more fuel costs per sector into and out of MMA, based on the additional flight and taxi time incurred as a result.

“The airlines have already felt these additional costs within the first week of the closure of the runway. This unnecessary burden is unsustainable for a 3-month period on the airlines.”

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