Nigeria Content Online

Following last Sunday’s three hours of power outage at the
Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, the airport on Monday
witnessed “frequent” power interruptions which also disrupted flight
operations.

Though the crowd of air travellers at the departure terminals
reduced compared to the number present at the halls on Sunday, hundreds of
passengers were still seen at the terminal awaiting their flights.

“The power here has been on and off for uncountable times and
this is mainly because of yesterday’s complete breakdown that lasted for more
than three hours,” said an employee at the airport who spoke on conditions of
anonymity.

According to the source, the situation affected operations,
though airlines were taking measures to air lift their customers.

“Any little power failure will definitely affect activities
here, not to talk of an over three hours power outage of yesterday and frequent
on and offs of today,” he said. “The good thing is that airlines are working
hard to fly their passengers.”

Commenting on the issue, an employee of Aero Contractors, at the
departure terminal, disclosed that the power failure crashed most of the
systems of airlines at the terminal, adding that the crowd present, as of the
time of filing this report, was as a result of the power failure and incessant
interruptions.

“It took more than necessary time to get the flight list out,
and this is because our systems went down after the power failure,” he said.

“As you can see, part of this office is not powered, the air
conditioner is not working, the fans are switched off and all this is done just
to have enough power to operate our systems so that passengers can fly to their
destinations.”

The staff called on the aviation ministry to work on infrastructure
at the airport, stressing that it is high time “this embarrassment on
passengers and airport users is stopped.”

Officials comment

Akin Olukunle, the spokesperson for the Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria, disclosed that the power outage of Sunday was discovered
to be “a shorting of seven of the cables” supplying power to the terminal
building, adding that power was, however, restored to the one of the arms of
the airport immediately the problem was determined.

“Our suppliers were contacted immediately we discovered the
fault that caused the outage and they supplied the cables that were being used
to currently solve the problem,” he said.

“The management of FAAN appeals to the travelling public to bear with us for
the inconveniences occasioned by this unfortunate incident.”