Kudos as FAAN moves to decongest Lagos airport

EARLY in the week, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) announced plans to decongest air traffic at the Lagos Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

FAAN in the announcement while appealing to airlines to route some of their traffic to other airports especially the airports with the newly constructed terminals, advised that there was no need for all airlines to cluster around one airport.

This move by FAAN is a good development coming at a time the government is ensuring the terminal buildings across the airports experience serious transformations.

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According to the General Manager, Corporate Communications at FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, the shift of some traffic from Lagos airport to others would help in putting the newly commissioned terminals in Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA), Omagwa and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja to maximum use.

Prior to now, stakeholders had faulted the clustering of nearly all airlines operating in the country at the Lagos airport while other airports were left abandoned.

The excuse from many of the airlines then had been that of infrastructural deficiency as seen in the dilapidated terminal buildings at the airports where mostly airline activities ranging from ticket purchase to profiling of passengers take place.

There is no doubt that all these critical functions can only be carried out effectively from a comfortable environment which was then almost lacking in other airports.

The good news is that the government through FAAN has started tackling these deficiencies as witnessed in the massive construction and commissioning of modern terminal buildings at the airports.

Already, the new terminal buildings at the Abuja and Port Harcourt airports have been commissioned while work has reached advance stages at the Lagos, Enugu and Kano airports.

In other words, FAAN is yielding to the yearnings of the airlines and the passengers. Since the airports are now going through structural transformation, it only make sense that the transformation which gulped huge fortunes should be put to maximum use.

The only way this can be achieved is for airlines to put the facilities into use as this will go a long way in fast tracking their business with passengers equally enjoying a less cumbersome process which prior to now was almost absent as they overstretched facilities at the Lagos airport.

The good news in this development is that some foreign carriers have started keying into the infrastructural wind of change blowing by accepting to operate some of their flights from the other airports with the new terminal buildings.

Already,  Turkish Airlines and Emirates have indicated their readiness to commence scheduled flight operations from Port Harcourt and Abuja airport, respectively.

The decongestion of the Lagos airport is one of the best decisions so far taken by the government through FAAN in the sense that all sides have one or two things to benefit from the arrangement.

While the presence of new standard terminal buildings will enhance the operations of the airlines with the provision of alternative airports to operate from, the opportunity will not only make their processes seamless but fast and subsequently translate to more money to their coffers.

Passengers can now heave a sigh of relief as they no longer need to come to Lagos to catch foreign flights as they now have the choice to travel to the nearest airport to them to catch flights to any part of the world with ease.

All these opportunities have been absent due to the long years of infrastructural decay.

Above all, the availability of the new terminal buildings and their patronage by the airlines and passengers will also attract more funds into the coffers of government through FAAN.

 

At this juncture, there is the need for FAAN to ensure other airports especially the international airports benefit from the infrastructural transformation as this will help in selling the facilities to the airlines and passengers on one side and also shore up the image and efficiency of the airports in view of the concession plans of the government.