… says airlines cannot dictate for FAAN on the relocation plan
… seeks solution to Jet A1 scarcity
The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Captain Rabiu Yadudu, has explained that when a new terminal is commissioned, you have to do operational transfer before you can move.
Yadudu said this while fielding questions from the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC), in response to why airlines have shown reluctance in relocating their operations to the new Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) terminal which was commissioned in March 2022, saying that the relocation was in phases starting with two airlines.
“We decided to start moving in phases. We didn’t want everyone to move at the same time. If you remember, when Terminal 5 opened in London, it took others about six months because of some teething challenges.
“The terminal is opened. It is only here that people complain.; nowhere in the world that you have a perfect system. No airport operates in isolation of its environment.
“Aviation industry keeps evolving when the challenges happen and are tackled immediately.
“The relocation is in phases. No airport system will say you want to relocate to a new terminal and you want to remove everybody, you will crash.
“So, we sent two airlines and other ones will follow. I told them to move the airlines that operate morning and afternoon flights so that we will decongest the old terminal. So that congestion in the morning and evening will be reduced,” he explained.
Yadudu however, decried that it is unfortunate that some of them said they will not move, “but we are not ready to compel them to move. We just keep quiet. You cannot be a FAAN client and dictate to us.
“When the time comes, they must all move. Those that refused to move want to paint us in a bad light that we don’t have a good terminal, which is not true.”
“You were complaining of the bad facilities and the baggage handling; now, we provided you with a new one, yet, you refused to move.”
“The whole of aviation in the world is national interest and unfortunately, Nigerians are joining them to condemn the industry,” Yadudu regretted.
He sympathised with the airlines on the scarcity of Jet A1, saying that if anything affects the airlines, it will affect FAAN and every other thing or organisation in the industry.
The Managing Director however, pointed out that they cannot be increasing fares arbitrarily as suggested by many but promised that FAAN and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) are working actively with the airlines to proffer solution.