Photo Caption:
From left Monica Oguta, Head, Aviation Security; Blessing Ewah, Head, Operations; both of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services; Limited; Barr Festus Keuamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace; Mr Christopher Omoaghe, SA, Special Duties & Projects to the Hon Minister and Mr Kabir Muhammed, MD, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria during the tour of Murtala Muhammed International Airports, Ikeja, Lagos on Thursday.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo has suspended the Nigeria Air project and Airport Concession pending when President Bola Tinubu is briefed on the whole matter.
Keyamo who stated this in an interview with Aviation Correspondents during an inspection of the airport facilities in Lagos also gave all the international airline operators operating from the old terminal till October 1 to relocate to the new terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
The Minister said Dominion and Evergreen Apple Hangars at the airport must give way for wide body aircraft to access the new terminal.
In the words of Keyamo, :”There are issues on the ground before I came, concessions, for now I have suspended all of that until I brief Mr. President what have been happening concerning all the noise, including the issue of the Nigeria Air, I have given directive that everything should be suspended until I brief Mr President fully. What I owe Mr. President is honesty, he brought me here to correctly advice him, I am looking at all the agreements that was signed to correctly informed Mr. president. I owe my total loyalty to the Nigeria people to have the best of aviation services and to Mr. President. For now for the sake of the comfort of Nigerians, we have to find a way to use this, the new terminal even without the big planes coming in to use”.
He noted that the old terminal is an eyesore with the lifts that are not working.
The Minister pointed out that for the passengers coming in, the terminal is very unwelcoming with no air-conditioning.
He said: “We have this new terminal that the Chinese built, Nigerians have been asking why are they not using this terminal? The simple reason is that I don’t know how this new terminal was designed without a provision to take the big planes. So I don’t know what happens, I have been asking question as to how they will design an international gateway like the Lagos terminal without a provision to take the big planes, you don’t have the aviobridges that can link to the big planes, that has been the problem why we have not been using this terminal. Meanwhile 60 percent of the revenue of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN comes in from the Lagos gateway. It is one of the major gateways into the country. So what is the solution to this? I have said we must use what we have for now. I have given all the international airlines and all the other airlines till the 1st of October to move from the old terminal to the new one, and now we are going to do is temporarily shut down the old terminal and sort out all the issues regarding the old terminal”.
The Minister explained further that: “We are going to do emergency procurement to buy the big buses, we are going to put them in buses to where the big planes are in an orderly fashion both arrival and departure. So that Nigerians can have some form of comfort in this facility. The long term plan is that we are going to build aviobridges for the big plan. So that mean that some of those private hangers will have to go, for public purpose, we have to relocate them, if we have to do anything for them, we have to do that so that we can have a functional, beautiful gateway to Nigerians. Now I am giving them to the 1st of October to shut down the old terminal and we can use this facility by this arrangement that we are putting on the ground”.
Keyamo ordered the Managing Director of FAAN to remove all the unsercieable aircraft at the airport.
The Minister noted that: “These are where they put unserviceable planes and I also understand several of them went to court. I have told the MD of FAAN that all of these aircraft here that are totally unsercieable should be removed. You cannot park them perpetually on the facility of the Federal Government. We want to expand the apron and they will have three months to remove them. All those with unsercieable aircraft, we are giving them three months to take away their aircraft after which we shall be at liberty to do away with them because we want to expand our aprons. I have told the MD of FAAN to get in touch with all of those who have their unserciceable aircraft because it is our facility; they are hampering development”.
Keyamo while adding that the new terminal is underused, said the federal government spent a lot of money building it as the country have to use it.
