Scheduled local and international flights to and from Nigerian airports were getting back to normal on Monday after five days of disruption caused by a thick cloud of dust, aviation officials said.
”Visibility has increased from 200m to 1 000m today [Monday],” the chief meteorologist at the Lagos airports, Felix Ikeghua, said.
Nine flights managed to land during the day at Lagos’s two airports, officials said. The chairperson of the Nigerian Aviation Safety Initiative, Captain Dung Fam, also confirmed that the dust was clearing.
Every year between December and April, dust clouds are blown south across Nigeria from the Sahel semi-desert to the lush Atlantic coast by a seasonal wind known as the harmattan, severely cutting visibility.
No flights took off or landed at Lagos’s local and international airports between January 6 and 8, airport officials said.
The disruption also affected Abuja, Kano, Enugu, Owerri, Port Harcourt and Calabar airports.
About 30 000 pilgrims planning to travel to Saudi Arabia are still stranded at various Nigerian airports because of the delays, five days ahead of a deadline set by Saudi authorities for them to arrive, officials said.
Nigeria lacks many modern navigational aids, and aviation authorities urge flight operators not to risk flying in bad weather. — Sapa-AFP