320DRIVER
4th Dec 2002, 20:53
Hi all,
Any points and hints when operating into Lagos and Accra?
Any infro re: ATC, arrival/departue routes, terrain, handling, etc will be appreciated :-)
With thanks.
320DRIVER
Been to ACC a few times. Are you refering to pax or cargo handling? If cargo, agent is AFGO and they're not bad.
Stay at the Labadi Beach or the Golden Tulip hotel. Good pub/restaurant is the Aquarius. Seem to remember a casino in the Golden Tulip if your into that kind of thing. Drove past a nightclub called Makumba's a few times though never went in.
Treetopflyer
7th Dec 2002, 09:33
Hey 320Driver
Lagos is a very busy airport by African standards. The airport is equipped with an ATC radar, which is turned on only when the approach controller starts getting too many airplanes in his hands to deal with them "manually". I have been there a few times with the radar off and a dozen airplanes headed for the LAG stack, and I must say it can get wild up there!
The east runway is normally used for domestic ops (very busy with all these B727, B737 and until recently BAC111), while the west one is normally assigned to international ops (rather quiet). BUT: ATC seems to be able to handle only one departure at a time, so the airport actually functions as a single-runway airport. Hence, you may be all alone waiting 20 minutes for a takeoff clearance at 19R threshold, with nobody landing or taking off in front of you... while heaps of planes are departing from 19L. Overall, operating in & out of Lagos necessitates a lot of patience, and a good air conditionning system to stay cooool...
Traffic in Lagos -- road traffic, I mean now -- is absolutely UNBELIEVABLE. You have to see it to understand. On a night stop, a good hotel "nearby" the airport is the Sheraton Ikeja: 5 minutes drive in the middle of the night, and 1 hour only during peak... Food there is rather bad (English type) but there is a swimming pool and a night club inside the compound so you don't have to venture out in the streets.
Oh, and by the way 320Driver: please be smart and don't crash in Lagos. During a recent hangar fire, it was found that the airport authority there only disposed of a SINGLE operational fire engine...:rolleyes:
Have fun!
(And in Accra, you can sleep at the Shangri-La hotel, 5 minutes from the airport. Ideal for a short night-stop -- one where you don't have time to get wasted on ABC beer in the seaside clubs that is :D)