Posted by Sade Williams
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said it will put a stop to granting flight operation extension to sunset airports across the country.
Sunset airports are airports across the country operating between sunrise and sunset. Apart from the five major airports in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kano, which operate 24 hours, other airports between 7 a.m to 6.pm.
According to Capt. Rabiu Yadudu, managing director, FAAN, it is a safety move and to also put a check on airlines that have a Standard Operating Procedure of delaying their flights but he however insisted that the policy FAAN has tinkered is not absolute and would make concessions for extreme situations.
He spoke on Wednesday during the presentation of his paper at the ongoing Airports, Airlines Business Summit and Expo AABSE 2022 organized by NIGAV.
According to him, “We have stopped giving operation extension to sunrise and sunset airports across the country. It was actually the safety and security considerations that drove us to make this particular decision. We have already started and we’ve met with NAMA team and we are in agreement that there is no going back.”
Yadudu said Management of FAAN and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) have met and resolved to adopt the new operating standards policy that stops granting of operation extension to all sunrise and sunset across the country.
Yadudu, who insisted that the new policy is borne out of safety and security considerations however said that the could be a waiver when there are critical reasons to do so.
On what could be done in case there are situations which could forces airlines to operate to the such airport beyond the scheduled period, he said: ‘We don’t plan safety and security policy based on such permutations.
“When something like that happens, then we know how to cross the bridge it when we get there; but right now we are working normally and operations are normal , we have to plan our operations the way they remain standard.
“If you consider such things then you wil not have standard operations procedure (SOP) anywhere. It remains as it is.”, he said.
The FAAN boss, who also mentioned that the authority would soon embrace paperless policy in its operations both with its stakeholders and internally affirmed that it would help it to improve its services to all its stakeholders and internal processes as airport operators
“What I have said is that FAAN is implementing paperless operatingp olicies in our offices. We have already procured the service; it is being implemented now though not into full operation. But I hope within the next three or four months it would be fully operational. it would help us to improve our services to all our stakeholders and our internal processes as airport operators.
