A Second Runway for Abuja Airport
Aviation industry analysts have opined that the shutdown of Abuja airport for the rehabilitation of the runway and the movement to Kaduna airport, which is the alternative airport, would have cost government, airlines and other business organisations involved in the movement over N1 billion. These include cost of logistics for moving personnel and equipment to Kaduna; the deployment of security operatives and the provision of extra navigational aids; airside facilities and others.
This huge cost, the analysts noted, would have been saved if the government did the right thing by building a second runway five years after the Abuja airport started operation, as recommended. But on the other hand, many rightly observed that the shutdown has helped to rehabilitate Kaduna airport, which was abandoned and neglected for years to the extent that the passenger terminal was left as carcass of uncompleted building.
This closure has reinforced the need to have second runway at the Abuja airport. The former Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Sule Ozenua said that Abuja does not have the complete paraphernalia of an international airport without a second runway.
“The unfortunate thing about Abuja closure is that we want to say Abuja is an international airport. As far as I am concerned and as the world knows, there is no international airport that will be operating with only one runway. And when you go back to the inception of Abuja airport construction, you will find out that the master plan of Abuja airport consists of two runways and one would have expected that less than five years after Abuja came into operation, the second runway should have been in operation. But since 1984, nothing has been done to ensure the construction of the second runway in Abuja. It is as if we all went to sleep,” Ozenua said.
He noted that over the years, the management of airport authority (FAAN) had tried to draw attention to the need to have second runway at the Abuja Airport, noting there is massive wear and tear when only one runway is used, 24/7, even if it was constructed for 20 years, so the usage has caused massive deterioration and the hold-up weight has reached the critical limit.
“Now, with the disrepair, this is where we have reached that critical limit. I am sure that both the regulatory agency and others must have realised the danger at the Abuja airport operating the runway at this critical level. So the only solution we are now faced with because of all the years of negligence is that they have to close the airport,” Ozenua said.
In 2009 and 2010, there was massive debate on the plan to build a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. Then the contention over the planned second runway was the cost and it was the House of Representatives that finally scuttled the project. In retrospect, if that second runway was built then, there would not have been need to close the airport now for the repair of the only existing runway.
Many industry observers said that the House of Representatives did not serve the country well by scuttling the second runway project.
Informed source involved in the project then told THISDAY that the cost of the runway was put at N63.5 billion, which many Nigerians believed was outrageous. But inside source said that when one calculates what would have gone with the runway, the cost is actually justified, but when compared to the existing runways in the Nigeria and elsewhere that may not meet the envisioned standard and accompanying facilities of the planned runway, it would be assumed that the cost was outrageous.
It was a bigger project as it was designed to land heavier aircraft like Airbus A380 with expanded taxiways and other facilities.
The former Minister of Aviation who presided over the planned second runway, Babatunde Omotoba, told THISDAY in an interview about two years ago: “The issue of that runway has become very clear to the whole country that a second runway is needed in Abuja because of what happened. We have two in Kano and Lagos and of course Abuja being the FCT and with our efforts at developing it as operational hub for West Africa, it sure needed a second runway.
“The second runaway was conceived and designed to handle Airbus A380-800F with Category three Airfield Lighting (AFL). The length of the planned runway was 4.5 kilometers with a width span of 75 meters and its strip, which should be free from any obstacle on both side should be 150 meters on the two sides. The basic length of the runway is about 3.4 kilometers and because of the altitude of Abuja, about 1000 feet above Lagos; that will add about 267 meters to the runway and because of the temperature too we used 35.6 degree centigrade to design the runway, when you have high temperature it takes aircraft longer distance to stop, that added about 753 meters to the runway.
That was how the designers arrived at 4.5 kilometers. The current runway that we have was built in 1982 and that is 31 years old now (as at 2014). It was designed to last for 20 years, it has exceeded its useful life and so we saw the need for a second runway. The second and the old one will have about 1.5 kilometer distance between them, for the 1.5 km, 1.5 by 1.4 km.”
Now that there is urgent need to have the second runway, government must have to decide how to fund the already designed runway or invite investors to fund the project.