Stories By Chinedu Eze
The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku, has called on security operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos to streamline the screening process in order to reduce delays incurred in passenger facilitation.
Travellers go through different stages of screening conducted by security operatives from Aviation Security to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Immigration and even Nigerian Quarantine Service for international passengers.
Kuku who made this call during her maiden interactive session with the Airline Operators Committee (AOC) and heads of security agencies under the auspices of Airport Security Committee at the Airport, urged airlines and security agencies at the airport to prioritise passenger facilitation and comfort as well as the needs of the airports as an integral part of their duties and to ensure passengers have good travelling experience.
Kuku addressed the various concerns of the airports especially the state of infrastructure, which she said may not change overnight, but in the interim, some stop gap measures are being put in place to create some comfort while the major issues are addressed gradually.
She said security agencies should be consolidated to ensure that passengers undergo one seamless screening process, noting that currently passengers have to undergo multiple screening layers, which leave them with bad travel experience.
The Managing Director decried proliferation of protocol services by the personnel of various agencies andsaid this should be stopped immediately as it contravenes the Executive Order 001 of 2017 of the Federal Government and undermines protocol activities of FAAN Protocol Unit and that of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
She stressed that the MFA has the sole responsibility of attending to designated government officials and urged agencies to liaise with them when they need to facilitate their Principals/Officials, while the Passenger Support Service (PSS) of FAAN handles corporate organizations as these services are been paid for.
