By Sade Williams
Foreign airlines are currently finding it difficult to initiate ontime departures at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport over a power outage that is yet to be restored.
The problem from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) it was learnt, caused damage to the air-bridges when it eventually restored power, thereby rendering the facility unserviceable.
This has however affected the operation of international airlines as they resorted to disembarking passengers at the ramp.
Yakubu Dati, FAAN spokesman, who apologised to travellers and airlines alike, confirmed that ‘there was a power outage from PHCN and the airport was on our independent power supply.
He said ‘however when power was restored, the surge adversely affected the k16 transformer that serves the Air-bridges and rendered them unserviceable. This adversely affected operations of departing flights. The heavy rainfall further delayed attempts by engineers to effect repairs immediately.
“FAAN wishes to apologise to passengers, airlines and the general public for the inconvenience caused by this development as efforts are being made to find a lasting solution”, he said.
