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FAAN to shut Lagos airport runways for eight weeks for repair, to divert planes to alternate taxiway

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has announced that international runways 18R and 36L at Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos would be shut for repairs.

FAAN disclosed in a statement on Monday that the runway will be closed for 8 weeks for maintenance.

The agency stated that Taxiway B-18L will be used instead for all flight operations until the maintenance is done.

Earlier this year, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency shut down the same international runway for a few hours for maintenance.

It would be recalled that late last year, night operations returned to the second runway of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, otherwise known as runway 18/L, 18 years after night operations were last carried out on the facility.

In August last year, the FAAN shut the facility to all flight operations for the installation of the category three Airfield Ground Lighting system on the runway, allowing all flight operations to use runway 18/Right usually used by international airlines.

According to FAAN, this was part of the efforts aimed at improving the safety and efficiency of flight operations at the Murtala Muhammed Airport.

The airport is central to the operations of all domestic carriers. Daily operations begin and end in Lagos for most aircraft.

Without runway lighting for night operations, the runway is shut at sunset, forcing the domestic terminal and airlines to wind down operations at dusk — the peak air business globally.

The Lagos airport domestic runway, which was re-commissioned in 2006 after refurbishment and rehabilitation, has been without runway lights.

This made it difficult for flights to take off or land on the runway at night, forcing domestic airlines to land at the international wing at night and then taxi to the domestic side.

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