The Director-General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu, has said that many state-owned airports lacked what it takes to meet regulatory requirements.
This is even as he said that the more airports that are built by state governors, the more regulatory burden the agency faces.
The NCAA boss identified the burdens to include financial stress on all the agencies in the aviation sector like the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and other allied agencies.
Nuhu stated this at the second annual National Transport Technology Conference and Exhibition with the theme, ‘The Viability of State-Owned Airports: Issues, Challenges and the Way Forward,’ held virtually on Tuesday.
He said, “We have been stretched beyond our capacity. How does airport generate revenue when it operates once a week?”
Nuhu further stated that most of the airport projects are unviable and not thought through, hinting that the Federal Government is saddled with the responsibility of inheriting the aerodromes after they had been built.
“Most of the airports are unviable; built without traffic in mind and leaving the burden to the Federal Government to shoulder. Airports should be a catalyst for economic development. It has to be well thought through. It becomes a problem when an airport will not generate economic returns,” he said.
Guest speaker and the immediate past Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr Muda Yusuf, lamented that out of the 32 airports in the country, only four of them are viable.
The viable aerodromes are the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, which generates about 50 percent of the entire revenue; Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja; Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) and the Port-Harcourt International Airport.
Many of the airports, he said, are heavily subsidised by their state governments just to give an indication that they are working.
President, National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), Susan Akporiaye, blamed inadequate funding for the reason many state-owned airports are not thriving, stressing that no business will be cited when the airport only does one or two flights every day.
Wole Shadare, an aviation journalist and one of the discussants at the webinar, alleged that many of the airports embarked upon by state governments are conduit for fleecing their different states, noting that out of the several airports projects by states, only few are worth the huge amounts expended on them.
He expressed frustration that many state governors after building their airports subsequently transfer them to the FAAN, putting pressure on revenues from the only four viable airports.
According to him, despite the ineffective takeoff of some airport projects embarked upon by some state governments, more state governors still persist to build unviable aerodromes in their domains.
In this circumstance, he said the regulatory authorities are “forced” to spend revenue earned from the four viable terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano to subsidise operations in the 28 other airports managed by FAAN.
“From estimation, not less than N374 billion have so far been expended on such projects by the states, development observers reckon as a mere conduit to siphon public funds than for economic interests,” Shadare said.
Recall that the Edo State government was recently granted approval by the Ministry of Aviation to site another airport in the northern part of the state, besides the one in Benin, the state capital.
Other speakers at the conference include the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace, Dr Emmanuel Meribole; Managing Director, Anambra International Airport, Mr Marin Nwafor and the General Secretary, Aviation Round Table, Mr Olumide Ohunayo.
Others are President of NANTA, Mrs Susan Akporiaye; Cross River State Commissioner for Aviation, Captain Eno Inah (Rtd) and the Commissioner for Transport, Anambra State, Mrs Patricia Igwebuike.
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