Hazy weather: No flight cancellations at airports

Despite the hazy weather being experienced in most parts of the North, flights operated normally in and out of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport yesterday.

Visibility in most part of the North was between 2-5km and localised visibility less than or equal to 1000m, NiMets weather data showed.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) prescribes at least 800m visibility for flights to operate in Nigeria, based on safety precautions.

“Fresh dust was raised from its source region and is expected to advance into the country by tomorrow morning, thereby deteriorating the horizontal visibility across the northern states” NiMet said in its forecasts for April 1, 2018.

Based on the hazy atmosphere, there were concerns that flight operations would be disrupted. But when our correspondent visited the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja; at about 7:15pm yesterday, the few remaining flights for the day were being processed.

At the time, Arik Air had almost concluded boarding procedures for a flight to Lagos.

International flight like Emirate was also being processed at the time our correspondent visited the airport.

The Abuja Station Manager, Mr Abdullahi Saroke, told our correspondent that most of the airlines had full operations as scheduled. He said no flight was delayed or cancelled due to the hazy weather, adding that if any airline experienced delays, it was based on operational issues.

A cross section of passengers told our correspondent that they were surprised that in spite the hazy weather, flights operated normally.