Dangerous Runway at Faro??
From The News Portuguese English language newspaper
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The Faro International Airport, say aviation experts, should be closed immediately in order to undergo emergency renovation work. Furthermore, these experts state the airport runway is damaged to such an extent, that it no longer offers the necessary safety conditions for the number of aircraft which touchdown in the Algarve capital every day.
Only months after airline pilots started questioning the state of the Faro Airport runway, officials from ANA (Airports of Portugal), have reiterated earlier concerns, adding that urgent action needs to be taken.
The team of ANA experts inspected the airport on September 24 and 26, and immediately called for emergency work to commence on the runway.
However, a report published by ANA in May, praised the airport, awarding it a quality certificate.
But the September report, extracts of which were first published by newspaper Público, states: “The state of degradation on some stretches of the runway has reached serious proportions, and they no longer permit sporadic renovation work. In addition, the coming winter is bound to deteriorate the already bad state of the runway even further”.
A civil aviation expert, after reading the document, whose comments were printed in the daily, further condemned the airport: “I believe the most sensible solution will be to close the Faro Airport for works”.
Lu's Goldschmidt, chief of ANA’s External Relations Department, meanwhile contradicted these claims, saying the Faro Airport offered no risks to planes landing there. He did however add that the last occasion extensive work was done on the runway was in 1991, and that a new layer will be placed over the runway by the end of the year.
Despite these scathing reports, it should be noted that Faro is widely considered as being one of the safest airports in the world. Since its inauguration almost 40 years ago, only one accident, due to freak weather conditions, has been recorded at the airport.
Is it really that bad?