Minister of Aviation, Mrs Stella Oduah

There is a  frantic effort by the Federal Government   to   renovate  and expand  the nation’s airports    to position the sector    in line with air transport development in the world, reports Chinedu Eze

Many air passengers who travel through the nation’s airports have developed deep cynicism about the rustic and obsolete airport facilities. They have become immuned against many years of promises that these airports would be revamped and nothing was done at the end of the day.

Their cynicism stemmed from the fact that many Nigerians do not trust government, any government, because over the years succeeding governments have left the people behind. That was the disposition people had when the present administration began to preach about transformation.

In the aviation sector, stakeholders and others were used to copious promises from Ministers and their attendant grandstanding. Now, it has become a way of life when Ministers make promises they cannot fulfill. The people take it in their stride.

So it is with distrust that many airport users see what is today going on at some major airports in terms of renovation. Although work is steadily going on at the Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt airports in addition to seven others, but many are yet to raise their eyebrow until the work is finished.

This should be a challenge to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Ministry of Aviation who are behind these projects because such dance steps have been watched before and they suddenly stopped midway.

Upgrading Facilities
On approach at the exit gate of the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) at the Lagos airport, the area opposite the car park had been cordoned off and massive work is going where new terminal is being built. The old terminal, which was initially a make shift alternative when the main domestic terminal got burnt in 2000, had been retained with neither innovation nor expansion. Although in 2007 many of the domestic operators relocated to the new terminal built by Bi Courtney, known as MMA2, the old GAT has remained as busy as ever.

That is the terminal from where Arik Air, the largest Nigerian carrier operates over 60 domestic flights every day.

Many who witness the ongoing construction hail it as a good development but doubts still linger until they see the project completed.

Few months ago domestic operators were moved from the domestic terminal at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja to the international terminal, so that a complete rebuilding work could be carried out on the old terminal, which had since decayed.

The Minister of Aviation, Prince Stella Oduah, had in October 2011 assured the country that the government would remodel 11 out of the 22 airports managed by FAAN in the first phase of the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The new terminal at GAT is expected to house new departure and arrivals halls.
An official of FAAN told THISDAY that the GAT was expected to have a total face lift, a development coming up for the first time after over 30 years of the terminal’s existence.

The officials said that at the international wing of the MMA, massive work were on for the expansion of the arrival and departure halls of the terminal to accommodate the increasing passenger and aircraft traffic. The expansion work, sources at the airport said, would also affect the frontage of the terminal, including the diplomatic car park at the airport.

The Authority has also installed two new air cooled liquid chillers of 400 tons each in addition to the existing cooling system at the terminal.

The contractors had installed 50 AC packaged units of 10 tons each at the D and E wings of the terminal.
The FAAN official further disclosed that the Authority had taken delivery of three conveyor belts to replace the dilapidated ones at the airport, adding that the installation of the belts would be completed before the end of the first quarter of 2012.

There is a lot of work the Federal Government must have to carry out before it would really transform the airports, but indications show that the new FAAN management is poised to carry out the Herculean task of rejuvenating the airports.

Retrogression
Over the years obsolete airports seem to have retrograded the progress being made in other spheres of aviation as passenger growth had doubled over the past 10 years and more airlines from different parts of the world have started flying into the country, airport capacity seemed to have shrank as more people throng the departure halls to check in for varied international destinations.

The present administration of FAAN which had just spent 100 days in office had set in motion the development of a network of modern airports that would deliver passenger comfort and provide required safety and security as a way forward. It would also adopt a business model that would be self-sustaining and able to deliver and maintain world class infrastructure and services.

It is expected that when the transformation work is completed at many of these airports earmarked for facility upgrade, there would be improved passenger facilitation, aesthetics, and modern facilities.

FAAN Managing Director, George Uriesi said that his management would deliver the right structure, focus and calibre of human capital that would ensure that the set objectives were met and sustained. He would also equip the fire and rescue department from a status of non-compliance two years ago.
The present management in FAAN would also begin to upgrade and modernise the electrical supply systems of the airports in Kano and Lagos and also begin to resurface long overdue runways at the airports in Enugu, Maiduguri and Benin.

Some of the control towers have become dilapidated like the ones in Kano, Enugu, Ilorin, Benin, Ibadan and Kaduna. FAAN has completed plans to replace these control towers.

“We have an 11-terminals renovation and upgrade project, covering Murtala Muhammed International, the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) also at the Lagos airport, Abuja, Kaduna, Jos, Yola, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Enugu, Owerri and Benin. We are fixing the water system, the air conditioning system and the baggage belts system at MMA. We are significantly upgrading the total service offering in Abuja. We are also undergoing a transformation from a ‘civil service’ orientation to a business and customer service culture.”

The FAAN boss observed  that there was massive service infrastructure maintenance and replacement backlog due to a long term breakdown in planning, remarking that the agency must now play ‘catch up’ in order to become functional, compliant and certifiable.

“Lack of organizational capability impacting negatively on the business- critical human capital investment is required! Extremely limited resources- ‘smart’ prioritization is required!
Change management (our people, our partners and our stakeholders) - bringing them along, keeping them ‘on-side’.”

The FAAN Managing Director therefore pledged to stay focused- “executing plans and decisions, sustaining efforts; securing and maintaining support from within and outside FAAN (including FAAN staff, our bosses at the Ministry, our big bosses at the National Assembly, other key stakeholders, etc.)”

Non-negotiable Transformation

The FAAN Managing Director in a speech last year had insisted that the transformation agenda of the Federal Government in the aviation industry was not negotiable, remarking that it would proffer lasting solutions to the myriad of problems militating against the development of the sector.

He explained that the transformation agenda entailed changes in the ways the airports were run and the orientation of the workers and called on the staff to embrace the agenda, which was government’s vision aimed at modernising the airports in Nigeria and making them more viable with huge investment opportunities.

Uriesi noted that with the support of the government and the commitment of the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, priority attention would be given to 11 out of the 22 airports managed by FAAN under the new arrangement, a development which would eventually see the authority running world-class airports.

He promised then that his administration  would ensure adequate and qualitative welfare provision and services, including training, for the workers, however advised them to adapt to the evolving changes from the transformation agenda, noting that “what is not negotiable is what is to be done, what is negotiable is who does the work.”

“We are going to set up a score card in all the directorates of FAAN so as to monitor and appraise our performances. Everybody has a stake in the transformation. If we don’t manage FAAN well, it will go the way of Nigeria Airways (liquidation). We all need to realise that we are not meeting our financial obligations.”

  Uriesi said that in the unfolding transformation agenda, the airports, particularly those in Lagos and Abuja would be redesigned to accommodate the growing passenger and aircraft traffic, with the creation of more relaxed ambience in the terminals for passengers and other genuine airport users, a strategy aimed at boosting the revenues of the airports.

“The way the airports are designed is that they do not give room for aeronautical revenue. The present ratio of aeronautical revenue to non-aeronautical is about 80-20. This is not ideal. We are going to offer people more investment opportunities, propping up non-aeronautical revenue. That is, we are going to make more commercial offerings with more investment opportunities, so that we will have a successful business model, and we’ll be less dependent on aeronautical revenue.

“We are going to build confidence of the workers in the leadership. When the leadership is transparent, then the workers will show concern for the organisation, all stakeholders will buy in and we will get more revenue and we become buoyant.”
On the issue of concession agreements between FAAN and some private firms , which some of the workers at the two different sessions observed were not in the interest of FAAN,  Uriesi hinted that with the support of the Minister of Aviation, most of the concession agreements would be revisited to conform with modern day realities.

Improving Facilities, Boosting Revenue

Concessions at the airports have been the butt of arguments and controversies in the past few years and government officials both in the Ministry and in FAAN argue that government was shortchanged in the concession agreements.
“Most of the concessions are contestable and not acceptable. We either change them into concessions that add value to FAAN or we discard them,” he added.

While marking the present administration’s 100 days in the office, the Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah, said that in line with President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda, the focus of the Ministry would be to make air travel the preferred and safest means of transportation, increase the growth of the tourism industry and drive socio-economic growth in Nigeria.

And this would be done by positioning the aviation industry in line with international standards and best practices, changing the business model of the aviation industry into a self-sustaining model through increased private sector participation.

Changing Opinions
Of course, the airports in terms of facilities must have to meet the international standard and also travelers’ expectation for government to realize its goal of transforming the aviation industry in Nigeria into a regional hub in West and Central Africa. This will enhance internally generated revenue and improve transparency within the agencies by automating the revenue collection process.

Many Nigerians who are peeved by the neglect of the airports and who over the years did not see any sign of revamp, may be extremely reluctant to share the optimism with FAAN that in the next few years the airports would be transformed.
But until airport users begin to see what is done and begin to enjoy it, their cynicism may never give way to hope and optimism. But they will be highly flattered and elated when the Federal Government and FAAN succeed in fulfilling their promise.