Photo: This Day

Aircraft landing.

Consistent with international requirements, the new management of the Liberia Airport Authority (LAA) is making every effort to raise the standards [including air safety] of the Roberts International Airport (RIA) as required by international regulations.

The new management team has embarked on systematic reconstruction of the airport that includes every facet of the institution, and following recent tour of the facilities, the LAA is on track.

The reconstruction of the airport commenced long before the HLP meeting in January. The port's runway has been renovated however, daily routine monitoring of the runway continues in spite of the improvement made.

Last weekend, a team of journalists again toured the RIA facilities to access the improvements made and challenges that remain.

LAA's media director and columnist Ekena Wesley took journalists on the tour of the facilities, where newsmen toured the damaged motor pool structure of KLM, the fire service station, among others.

The airport has a number of fire trucks that are required by international regulations. The size of RIA fire fighters has increased from 27 to 40 in strength, though it still did not meet the threshold of 45 -the minimum standard required for the category that airport falls in.

Personnel of the RIA firefighting team said they have important fire-fighting gears and that the RIA management has provided a freezer with food, drinking water and cooking stove to keep the firefighters at base in case of eventualities.

Important airport equipment such as the RNAV GPS were tested and approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The system that enhances the pilot's ability to bring the plane to the runway, even if there is an engine failure or fire under a zero-visibility condition have met international standards.