This is not the best times for domestic airline operators in Nigeria as they have continued to delay and cancel flights due to bad weather.
Many of the Airlines have notified their passengers of possible delays and cancellations and to always contact their customer care to get information about their flights to avoid coming to the airport to wait for hours through an advisory weather circular.
In its weather advisory, Arik Air says the poor and persisting weather condition has affected their port-Harcourt, Kaduna, Benin, Warri, Asaba, Yola, Sokoto routes.
“This is to inform all our esteemed customers who have had the difficulty in reaching their various destinations through our flights that the current challenge is due to inclement weather.”
“We are notifying our passengers that there maybe delays and in some extreme cases cancellations.”
Dana also issued a weather advisory which says, “We sincerely empathize with all our guests presently experiencing delays across our network due to poor weather conditions in major parts of the country”.
It also added,” We hope the weather situation improves soon but in the interim, we encourage our esteemed guests to contact our customer care on…….”
Foreign airlines have also continued to divert to Accra, Ghana as the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos runway do not have the instrument to aid their safe landing coupled with the inclement weather.
The harmattan which resurfaced this week has so far led to the diversion of Emirates, Rwandair, Kenayan, Delta and British Airways to Accra.
Airlines, ground handling companies and other ancillary providers are said to have lost millions of naira and dollars due to this recent development including the aviation agencies.
Passengers have also suffered untold hardships with delays and cancellations flights and being made to stay in a hotel for days and not taken to their paid destinations and family worries too.
While reassuring airspace users and the general public that the Nigerian Airspace remains safe for seamless, and economic air travel, the Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) in a statement on tuesday says the inability of some international flights to land at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, is largely due to issues of inclement weather and company minima’s, adding that such diversions are in the interest of safety.
“The facts on record however are as follows: Lagos has two runways- 18 Right and 18 Left. The Doppler Very High Omni-Directional Radio Range (DVOR) and the Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) at the airport have successfully been calibrated and passed 100%.
It added that, “The localizer (a component of the Instrument Landing System) responsible for horizontal guidance at runway 18 Left has also passed 100% calibration while the glide slope (which is another component of the Instrument Landing System that provides vertical guidance) is undergoing routine maintenance.”
“On Runway 18 Right, there is Category 3 ILS which is still undergoing installation. Presently, Selex Systems, the contractors are working on the realignment of its parameters, preparatory to the calibration and commissioning of the equipment in the shortest possible time.”
