Worried by last November’s survey by a group, The Guide to Sleeping in Airports, which rated three of the nation’s airports among the worst in Africa, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has begun facility and infrastructure upgrade at airports, to transform some terminals into hubs for West and Central Africa, writes Aviation Correspondent KELVIN OSA OKUNBOR
A survey conducted by a group, The Guide to Sleeping in Airports, has rated Nigerian airports as among the worst in Africa.
The survey cited inadequate facilities that could deny the airports their push to become hubs for the West African sub region.
Worried by the parlous rating, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has rolled out series of programmes, including facility and infrastructure upgrade, to close the gaps.
Part of the reasons for doing this is to use the airports as a catalyst for economic development.
If some Nigerian airports are developed into a hub, aviation would contribute significantly to the gross domestic product.
Experts say Nigeria is blessed by geographical location as a hub in Africa, if airport facilities are put in place to drive the process.
Transforming airports to a hub for West and Central African regions has remained the main objective of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), its Managing Director, Saleh Dunoma, has said.
But, such ambition, he said, might not come cheap until requisite airport facilities and infrastructure have attained global standards.
International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the global industry regulator, prescribes conditions for achieving a hub status for any airport.
Part of the criteria include state-of- the-art airport and air navigation facilities, adequate fire cover, airport safety and security, perimeter fencing, airport certification, transit facilities as well as accelerated passenger facilitation.
Airports are yet to meet all ICAO requirements for hub status. Towards this end, an aggressive programme targeted at improving safety and security procedures at airports, as well as massive facility and infrastructure upgrade is on-going.
When completed, Nigeria would boast of having two airports designated as hubs for West and Central Africa.
The drive is part of efforts by the government to consolidate the untapped potential offered by Nigeria’s several air agreements it signed with other countries.
Dunoma said the authority would continue to rework its strategy to ensure that all requirements set for the pursuit of positioning the airports as hubs in the West Coast and Central African region are met.
He spoke against the backdrop of his one year anniversary in office, affirming that since he assumed duties as the helmsman of FAAN, the authority has lined up programmes to overhaul the airports in Nigeria.
Dunoma, who was appointed Managing Director of FAAN in March, last year, said there are lots of untapped opportunities for the aviation sector, especially as it affects the Lagos International Airport which he said would be positioned as a hub of aviation in West Africa.
He said about 15 million passengers are expected to travel through Nigerian airports this year. The growing passenger traffic, he said has made it incumbent for FAAN to improve on airport facilities.
Statistics of passenger service portal by FAAN showed that about 12 million passengers used the airports last year.
Experts said that Nigeria is positioned by geography as a hub in Africa, if only the government would put the necessary airport infrastructure in place to attract passenger traffic.
Part of the airport infrastructure requirement for a hub status, experts said, is a state-of-the-art passenger terminals, a transit lounge, modern air navigation facilities, quick turn- around time at the airports, as well as safety and security facilities.
Necessary airport infrastructure would attract more than the 27 international airlines flying into Nigeria, with the attendant increase in economic activities that would contribute significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Safety and security
If the airport authority must achieve its ambition of delivering airports as hubs for West Africa, experts said FAAN must rework its architecture to improve on safety and security. Part of the efforts they said, must be channeled towards immediate certification of some of its international airport terminals.
Without airport certification, the experts argued, the pursuit of hub status will remain a mere dream.
Dunoma said the country would meet the 2015 deadline as set by the International Civil Aviaton Organisation (ICAO), adding that the agency had in 2006 signed an undertaking with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), to certify the country’s international airports.
He explained that based on the agreement, the country was able to scale through the ICAO Universal Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP), saying that recently, FAAN set up a certification team, which visited some International airports to appraise the requirements for certification.
He said: “Certification of aerodrome is a means of demonstrating that an organisation has implemented its quality management system appropriately, this includes a third party audit. Quality management at airports ensures safety, security, efficiency, and service, thereby stimulating air traffic and increasing profit.
“Certification of airports brings about achievement and maintenance of a higher standard level of safety, promotes standardisation and consistency of procedures and operations. Another requirement is airport facilitation, which requires the minimum time for passengers to complete all airport formalities for transit travels in line with global practices,” he said.
Dunoma pointed out that the authority is pursuing the certification of at least two international airports in line with the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), before the end of the year.
He listed the airports to include Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
According to experts, before an airport could get ICAO certification, it must have full fire cover with adequate fire fighting trucks and other equipment to handle emergencies. Such an airport is also expected to have a comprehensive airport security manual and programme tailored to fit into the standards and recommended practices of ICAO. In addition, the airport must have airport perimeter and security fencing.
To ensure that there is tight security at our airports, the Federal Government has deployed advanced technology security systems in airports across the country, and has also put in place a joint military security operation to further secure facilities at the various airports.
The government has also put in place a 24-hour surveillance patrol at the five international airports – Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA), Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano and Enugu International Airport (EIA).
Also, the security of airports has been enhanced, with the introduction of biometric-based access controls at the airports and passenger screening at the five international airports.
The FAAN boss said: “Thus, to enhance airport security further, various biometric devices and smart cards, are options being considered or implemented across the world. Apart from passenger profiling, the quest to prevent hazardous items and substances from getting on board aircraft is another important concern in airport security. We are working hard to tackle these challenges.
We have acquired new security screening equipment, which are very functional and effective. The security agencies are using them. It is not just for aviation security personnel that are finding them useful, but other security agencies at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport as well. We are also training our staff so they can be acaquianted with the new software that came with the equipment.”
Provision of fire cover
Dunoma said in the last one year, the authority has made efforts to address gaps in the airports’ fire fighting requirement with the deployment of more fire tenders to major airports to back up the existing facilities.
Apart from the deployment of fire trucks, the authority is currently recruiting aviation security and fire fighting personnel to address the manpower gap in such areas.
”We have purchased fire tenders and distributed them to all airports across the country in order to beef up our fire fighting capacity. We have also entered into a maintenance agreement with the manufacturers of the fire tenders, so as to ensure that we optimise the life span and usage of these equipment. We have also trained our staff on the use of these new fire fighting equipment to ensure they perform at optimal levels in the nearest future,” he said.
To achieve the hub status, the airport authority has rolled out new security measures at major airport to checkmate unauthorised movement of persons around the terminal building.
Ths is in addition to the deployment of close circuit television cameras at operational and non – operational areas around major terminals .
Dunoma said the airport authority has designed a detailed plan for the review of security architecture for airports nationwide.
The new security plan, includes the procurement of sophisticated counter terrorism gadgets and effective collaboration among security agencies.
Chidoka said the presence of such people is giving the nation a bad reputation, even as they remain big security risks around the airport.
Passenger facilitation experts say is key to attaining hub status for any airport.
One of the ways of achieving this is through replacement of operational facilities including ultra modern high speed carousels .
FAAN industry experts say must ensure it addresses challenges associated with erratic performance of its conveyor at the Lagos International Airport to improve turn around time.
Dunoma said: “For over 30 years, no serious addition of infrastructure was made at the Lagos International Airport until a few years ago.
There were lots of complaints from users , passengers and airlines because of malfunctioning airport facilities.
But, in the last few years, because we want to make the airport a hub for West Africa , government has expanded the D and E wings to increase capacity for passenger facilitation. The check in counters were quadrupled both for arrival and departure formalities . The arrival carousels have been installed and they are larger , faster and better than wahab we had initially.
We have met the standards for NCAA and ICAO , which requires that any arriving passenger processing time must not exceed 45 minutes.
Our plan is to proved facilities so that as passenger traffic continues to grow we could proved facilities to cater for this growth in traffic.
At the end of the day, processing and facilitation at the airports would be better and smoother.
What you are observing at the airport is a new terminal which would have departure and processing facilities for international passengers we also intend to provide transit locations whereby passengers that are coming into Lagos and need to transit to other parts of the country would have a place they would be processed and then moved to their next aircraft.”
Like is the practice in some airports across the globe hotels are built inside airports to enhance their hub status.
The rationale for this according to aviation experts is to support passengers who are willing to spend longer time at the airport while on transit flights.
Dunoma said the airport authority is building a 20 room transit hotel at the international wing of the Lagos Airport to achieve this objective .
Dunoma said: ”Airports all over the world have hotel facilities.
We are working hard to provide such facilities at the Lagos Airport.
It is for passengers that need to wait at the airport for longer time. The ultimate goal is that we ate positioning Lagos Airport as a hub . When it becomes a hub there is the tendency that passengers will wait for may be 16 hours around the airport and would need a hotel facility where they can go in and rest while waiting for their next available flight.
The hotel is under construction, when completed, it will bring relief to such passengers. We have started with 20 rooms and if the need arises, we would construct more rooms.”