Power outage disrupts flights at Abuja airport

A power outage that lasted for over two hours on Sunday left hundreds of passengers stranded at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

Our correspondent gathered that the outage and the subsequent disruption of flight activities was as a result of the packing up of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria’s transformer supplying electricity to the Arik Hall wing of the airport.

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria confirmed the incident to our correspondent, but said the outage was rectified after the generators had been switched on.

It, however, did not specify the number of flights that were delayed, but maintained that the situation was promptly addressed.

Sources at the airport, however, said about 60 incoming and outgoing flights were delayed.

One of the sources said the development left hundreds of passengers frustrated as many flights were unable to take off as scheduled.

“The situation lasted for about three hours and no meaningful explanation was given,” an aggrieved official, who pleaded not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the subject, said.

“Why must it take this long before they put on the generators? We know PHCN is used to doing this, but we must be prepared at all times because outages like this do not only leave the passengers stranded, but also affect the businesses of airlines,” the official said.

Reacting to the development, the spokesperson, FAAN, Abuja airport, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, told our correspondent that the outage occurred around 8am but stressed that the situation was rectified as quickly as possible by the agency’s engineers.

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