The chief operating officer of the Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, operators of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two (MMA2), Mrs. Tosan Duncan Odukoya, in this interview with Justnet News, read a riot act against touting and extortion at the terminal saying both endanger safety and security. She stressed that BASL will not in any way condone touting, therefore she assured customers of safety and comfort while also assuring them of a total wellbeing, stating that MMA2 is the finest in airport hospitality, an ecosystem and a place of customer experience. She shared the ongoing transformation at MMA2 relating to recycling, training and technology among others.
Excerpts
We know that airports don’t only thrive on aeronautical income. So what are the non-aeronautical sources MMA2 is using to improve revenue?
What’s the need for this revenue? That’s the first thing we have to look at. Why do we need this revenue? Are you people just making money? No. It’s called building a world-class system. It is called improving on ourselves to the level where we are plowing back.
It is unfortunately called my one dollar, which used to be just N500, N400, is now N1,200 naira. My single one dollar. Do you understand? Yes. So the work that I have to do in order to make sure I keep just my standard going, I have to do double or triple than I was doing a year ago. Do you get me? Because I still have to go back for my spare parts, and they say it’s $36 for your spare parts. That $36 is now N36,000. You got me. It used to be N18,000 naira.
People are saying, what are you doing? Why are you doing that? It’s not that it’s not my fault, but I must keep my standards up. Sometimes you walk into a place, maybe it’s a hotel or it’s somewhere, and you say, ah, this place is not like it used to be. It’s difficult, even to dry clean curtains in a hotel, do you know what it takes?
So when we come in with what we call non-aeronautical, it sounds like big English, but it’s not. Aeronautical means that just because you are travelling, we can take some of the taxes, I’ve spoken about taxes, fees, surcharges. “There’s nothing wrong with taxes, fees, and surcharges. They’re brilliant but are they being used correctly? So we’re doing some of that.”
Then the non-aeronautical you are talking about is all of my shops. Let’s see. So you walk into MMA2 and my goodness, you have between 10 to 12 to 15 eateries and restaurants and coffee shops.
And sometimes they say, oh, we want to come in and we say, oh, you know what? These our customers their tummies are full, but we do a lot and they’re very innovative. We have health, we have food; we have local, we have continental, and then you have what we call the fast moving consumer goods.
So we have a lot of shops just selling things. We have health, we have pharmacies, and we have banks, commerce. So we are a hub, a high hub activity.
And then we have luxury goods. We have good old consumer goods, something for everybody when it comes to the fact that people need to be able to get all that they need; one of our old adages, we still love it, we use it says ‘You eat, you shop, and you fly.’ That is what we started with.
Now we are and we also call ourselves more than a terminal, which is what we are talking about in this non-aeronautical income. And then now we call ourselves the finest in airport hospitality. And that is because we are moving this terminal away from being just a process flow, we are moving it to a point where we are actually a lifestyle. We are an ecosystem, we are a customer experience place.
So we have an art gallery. You can actually come here, enjoy art for those who are lovers of art and buy art, you can come here and enjoy some of our gardens, the areas that we are making into a garden. So we are talking about wellbeing. So in order for us to just say, we are not just there, we have advertising and all that, but what we are doing with the advertising is that we are using it as CSR as well.
Let me tell you about the new MMA2. We are going green. We have a recycling system. We are actually recycling some of our plastics because you know, we have a lot of single use plastic. We don’t just let it go into the system to create problems for the environment. We are actually reining it in, recycling it and using the money from that to actually pay for general waste. So we are trying to be autonomous when it comes to going green. So we called in a fantastic agency that’s working with us on recycling, and then we are trying to reduce our carbon footprint. That’s just about that part.”
MMA2 is also what we call a lifestyle ecosystem whereby we are enjoying the customer’s wellbeing. We have a 24 hour medical facility that is actually fantastic. They are paramedics. They are not just normal clinics or anything. They are paramedics. They are quick to go. They have their backpacks. They look fantastic. We love them a lot, but then they specialise in this kind of thing; First aid; I’m going, am I really okay? Is my blood pressure fine? So we do a lot when it comes to making sure that all our people, terminal users, travellers, everybody is running like an ecosystem.
So we don’t just say, um, you come and pay rent and get us non-aeronautical. No, we think from the journey from home to the journey to your home. You are going to the other part of Nigeria. What is your customer experience like? That is what governs our ability to say it is a system that sometimes people are ready to pay for. “I remember speaking to one big man and said, I have a system where I can check you in, digitally using technology from your home. You just book online and when you get to me, I’ll have the people to come pick you up. They’ll take you to a quiet area. And from there you go straight to the tarmac to travel.
So that your work that you are doing, that makes you such a big man in this country you can continue to do your work. That’s all I’m there to do. You don’t have to get into the crowd or this, do you know, and that I will do because of your wellbeing. I’ll do that because you are exclusive, some people like to be exclusive. Some people like to be special.
You don’t have to queue to check in. Not because it’s a crime to queue to check in. Some people love that because they look around, they see what’s going on but others are so busy. And my dear, these are the lubricants of society, whether we like it or not. Do you know what the gentleman told me? He actually took his card out of his pocket. We were not in the terminal. I wasn’t selling anything and he slapped his card on the table and said, I’ll pay for that. “So what is he paying for? He’s paying for service, for experience, for sometimes something that’s not even a tangible qualifiable thing. Good.”
So when it comes to aeronautical or non-aeronautical revenue, we have to think in that line, not just say, okay, go and call that shop, let them come, go and, you know, we don’t do it static. We do it with a whole process flow in mind. And that is what is helping us.
We are working towards increasing trade, opening up the doors of tourism, working towards technology, allowing it to transform MMA2 to be who it wants to be and who it is ready to be.
How can you connect this to attracting investment?
Sometimes some people will say it’s not rocket science or it’s a no-brainer. At the end of the day, it takes a lot of homework to make sure that you are ready for the next level. In order to do that, I called all my team together.
The team is a big team. It’s a team I cannot do without. It’s a team I wish to seize this opportunity to thank for the hard work that has gone into making 2023 what it was. Remember how the year began?
I don’t want to talk about it, what we all went through at the beginning of the year. How we went through a double election. How we came out of it. We couldn’t even buy something in the market. How we came out of that. We have petrol that suddenly went very high. We’ve come a long way. Are we not here? Have we not survived? Do we not give thanks to the Almighty, our Creator?
Yes, but at the same time, it takes a lot of work. And our team is brilliant. So we sat together. We locked the door. And then we said to ourselves, what are we going to do to create a theme for next year? One of us said, it’s about business survival. Another one said, we need to use technology. Another one said, we need to be able to work. Just what you said, open up the doors of trade.
So we all came up with a theme we’ve called the five Ts. How are these five Ts going to get us through 2024 to this same time next year by the grace of the Almighty? And then we face 2025. The five Ts are trade; what are we doing? Like you’ve said, non-aeronautical. How are we doing it? Not just normal trade, but trade between governments, trade for commerce, trade between states and tourism. So trade, tourism.
This is the gateway to Nigeria. Whether we like it or we don’t, we love it. Lagos MMA 2, it’s a gateway. We are running 36 cities and we are doing it by sheer determination and making sure we keep ourselves abreast at all times. I’ve always said MMA 2 was for a long time the only public-private partnership (PPP) initiative, which was the government and private sector together with a design, build, operate, transfer model. And then we became the first. Why? Because somebody came behind us. So there are more.
We welcome it. We love it. There are other people like us. But we’ve got to stay abreast and ahead of the game. So tourism opens up that door, whereby we’re working with even the trade fairs. We are working with tourism agencies to say, come run through us. Bring programsmes, let them happen. Let airlines work, we talk to the airlines and talk to everybody. We don’t let them go. When we see an airline and they say, ah, your passengers are less than yesterday. What are you doing? What’s going on? We talk to them. They love it. Because we are not there just to say we’ll fold our arms and pass through us and go, no, we’re working with you. If you succeed, I succeed. So that’s what we do. We grow together.
We go and take small businesses and we say, do you know you can become big? In this terminal, one of our, in fact, there are more than one. Now, there are about six or seven of them. They had one shop in 2007 and 2008 and 2009. Now they have four.
One is at departure. One is at arrivals. One is here. One is there. Four in this terminal. Why? Because it means something to them. We’re growing with them. We’re excited. So when they come and say, I need more space, we’ll be joking. Where are we going to put you? Will you climb? We love it. Because it’s opening up the doors of trade and tourism.
In between that is what we call training. My dear, you cannot, but have human capital assets being valued as who they should be because without the right attitude, the right character, the right training, we are joking when it comes to expansion and improvement, continuous improvement. So we are working, not just with our stakeholders, with our own staff. We have over 400 training.
So next year (2024) is a big year when it comes to all kinds of training, safety, security, customer service, emergency response, everything, even how to grow, what to do, how to work together with people.
And then after that, we said we cannot progress without technology. My dear, you and I have been using old, nice phones. We love it. Yes, I know. But it’s time for us to move on into the level of digital technology as well, whatever it takes for us to be able to improve ourselves.
Hence, we have this new system that we improved on for checking, which is called the Razer Cup system, the common user passenger system. So that system is something that we have had since 2007. We made ourselves world class when everything had an upgrade.
Some of us used to use iPods and iPhones and then it went from one, two, three, four. I think I stopped at iPhone 6 or 7. I said, I can’t do it anymore. But they’ve gone on to iPhone 9, iPhone 10, 10 Pro Max. 11, 12, 13. So what does it do? We must upgrade. We must move with the times. We must be ahead of the game.
So we went back to the guys who work with what they call airport ticketing check-in solutions. That’s what they do, which is what you see. It’s not easy to just walk into an airport and you just stand at one computer. The computer talks back to you. You know, you look at it and they give you a boarding card. It’s a lot of technology. And that boarding card, you take it, you go, and then you put it against one system or the other, and the door will open for you. It’s not magic, as one of our advertising companies says; it is not ‘juju.’ It is ‘systems.’
It is, it is, it is, you know, working hard, but it needs a lot. So our chairman, we are very grateful to him, agreed to upgrade the system. He agreed to upgrade. And this is what we did this year in preparation for this period and also in readiness. And that’s the technology.
We also have systems where we are improving on our car park system, whereby people can come in and it makes it much faster for them to pay their car park bills in our multi-story car park.
We are looking at systems where we are actually working on our announcement systems and are upgrading our, you know, um, information, upgrading the information where you can just look at the TV and you see cancelled or delayed, delayed, or arrived or baggage hall. A lot of those systems are not very easy, I must admit, and this is Nigeria, but we must make it happen. So technology.
And finally, that will lead us to the fifth T, which is transformation. MMA2 is going to transform for business survival. A theme for next year is all about making sure we are looking at the customer experience, trying to make sure we use all these internal things that we’re working on so that the customers indeed will have the journey of a lifetime when they fly through MMA2.
MMA2 is a PPP terminal, so what is your view about the adoption of PPP to run businesses?
You can’t imagine how that synergy is a model, not just for the record books and the history books, it is a model for the future. It is a tried and tested system. PPP is never a problem. The government is paramount to make sure that regulation and making sure that people are working within their compliance boundaries. Without that you’ll find that people become accountable to nobody, but the other part of the P, that’s the public, we need it. It must happen. The private, oh my goodness, they are very dynamic people, very passionate people. They have a lot of couples and they want profit. So it creates commerce.
So I am a complete advocate for public, private, partnership. It’s a brilliant system. It’s a great model. Okay. So when you said we are the first, like I said, we are the first.
We used to be the only, we are now the first, which means somebody is behind us. It’s coming along. It’s good. It’s needed. Um, what then happens is the other parts of the piece that I like, which is policy procedure and processes, without that, you’ll find that sometimes people are able to overlook what the public parts should do or what the private parts should do. And then they start an unnecessary quarrel. No, no, no, no, no.
People always say, Oh, husband and wife, if they don’t quarrel, it will not be sweet. No, no, no, no, no. I don’t believe in that. If you walk with each other and everybody knows what their boundaries are and everybody keeps to their lane, as they say, you will find that it’s a model that is well oiled, well tried, well tested. Look at airlines, look at even football, uh, look at other things.
You know, there are so many, even the oil and gas, even electricity, it works. So I believe in it. I think it’s brilliant. And I think it’s something that should be promoted in the right channels and it will work as it is working with us. As you can see.
So you’re in support of concession of airports?
Let’s put it this way. I work for a fantastic system that is a pioneer of it. I’m in support of everybody coming to the table to understand what it means to have concessions; why do people think it’s good? Why do people think it’s not good? What has worked? What hasn’t worked? There’s nothing more important than to understand that system. Airlines, even banks, you know, we’ve had government banks.
Now we have public private banks because the banks are highly regulated, but they are private as well. So, though it’s not, it’s not always called a PPP, I believe most banks in Nigeria are PPP because they are private, but they are regulated by the system.
I am in support of commerce. I am in support of trade. I’m in support of oiling the wheels that will make the country go round. If it is through concessions, if it is through a public private partnership, if it is through making sure that the customers which are our own citizens are well taken care of, whatever it takes, but it must be done through the right means. And for us in aviation, safety, security are life and death. A lot of times I tell my team, we are not just a bank or we are not just a mall or we are not just an insurance company. These are big industries. We are life and death.
Think of the life and the death of situations and make sure we are doing the right thing. And we are under regulatory and compliance issues. So that’s important for us to always keep in focus when it comes to our sector. It’s a specialised sector.
Recently the managing director of FAAN read a riot act to extortioners, do you have the same challenge of staffers extorting passengers and what are you doing about it to ensure safety and security?
We applauded both what the managing director said and what he was doing. It’s something that has been our core value. Ask for the core value anywhere of the Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited group and you will find integrity as well as discipline, as well as customer care, as well as job ownership.
So we, again, when I spoke about the PPP, it’s important because within that private aspect of it is where you have the job values, the fact that there is ownership, the fact that they know where they are getting, not just their daily bread from, where they are getting their job, career objectives being answered to. So as part of us at MMA2, we find that it’s important that we keep our focus time.
Touting, extortion; you know a lot of people say, oh, man must chop. Yes, but then by the time you say that and every man is chopping at the end of the day, we lose values. For example, somebody says, oh, bring your bag. I will check it in for you. Just give me a little bit of money. And that bag is over the weight. And they did not tell their airplane pilot. And so a bag that’s supposed to be 23 kilos is actually 31 kilos. They did not put in that extra 8 kilos. And they did not tell the pilot. And then that airplane takes off. And the next thing you see, Ejigbo, something has happened, God forbid. Do you understand? So there is a reason for which there are policies and procedures and regulators. There is a reason for that.
Not just baggage. What about ticketing? Oh, I will buy your ticket for you. The ticket is N33,000 but this my friend (a tout) from never before has sold it for N44,000 or N45,000. But he has not told the customer. So the customer has paid, thinking he’s paid to the right authorities. He comes back there. The flight is cancelled. The next thing you know, okay, can I have my 45,000 naira?
Sir, which N45,000? My machine says you paid N33,000. Oh, my goodness. You can’t have my customers confused, they’re shaking, they’re upset, and they’ve been messed around. Come on! It can never, you cannot tell me two wrongs will ever make a right. Because you say, oh, a man must chop I should look away whilst they don’t do what is their job.
The other day we heard about it in one of the airports. A government official said, if you don’t give me money, your bag? I will not cross your bag. There was nothing wrong with the bag. Do you understand? So at the end of the day, everybody says, oh, temper justice with mercy. Oh, look the other way. Oh, people must eat. Oh, it’s not fair.
I’ve always said there’s nothing wrong with charges. There’s nothing wrong with fees and tax. They must be channeled correctly. If people are doing their job, the job will go on. But I will not condone touting. It causes lack of safety, lack of security, lack of crowd control. Sometimes you can walk out and about 50 taxi drivers are looking for you. Out of them, there are the good ones.
If we have not streamlined it properly, made them register with us, make sure we know where their cars are, make sure we know what they are doing. Ah, we love it. Come and be registered properly. And then you can now line up nicely. Excuse me to say we are not the only country with a taxi service at the airport. No. When you go to other countries, the taxis are lined up. And you just see everybody going, next please, next please, next please. It works. What’s wrong with that? You know?
So, at the end of the day, you know, what is important is that we have a system whereby it’s running correctly and we don’t condone it. So, there’s touting. There’s extortion. There’s cheating. There’s, you know, lying. It leads to lack of safety, lack of security. We will not condone it. We told our staff. Again, we sent out a message in August. Sent it out in September. We sent it out in October. Reminding them. It’s not that it’s not done. It is not done.
We are just reminding them of core values. And letting them know. This time around, what we did was we switched the system. We told them, actually. There will be no more disciplinary action. You know most companies will have performance management. They will have a system where you pass through a disciplinary committee. What we said is, there will be none.
You will take yourself from where that misdemeanor and miscreant behaviour you’ve done and you will just go straight home. You will drop the ID card. And you will cease to be a member of staff. We are warning. So, we set out a special system. Because at this time of the year, it’s dangerous. People are coming from abroad. You’ve got these American brothers and sisters that are Nigerian but they don’t know their way here and you see people deceiving and extorting them. ‘I’ll take you. Oh, I know where to buy a ticket for you. I know what to do.’ It’s not fair. It’s not fair. So, let’s all try and do the right thing. What we’re saying to the systems is that they must improve their banking system, improve their online communication, improve the way that people are able to access them and we are also going to work on our crowd control. We are also working on our security system.
So that a customer that comes that doesn’t know what to do, they will have directional signs, safety signs, security signs, where to buy this, how to get that, how to access this. Our website has been beefed up. Everything you need to know about what will happen at MMA 2 is done. What’s done and what’s not done. It will be possible.