Why we are organising national aviation conference — FAAN MD

Captain Rabiu Yadudu is the present Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). In this interview, he speaks on sundry issues affecting the organisation, including the sincereNational Aviation Conference (FNAC), operations at the airports, security, the expensive of aviation fuel and more.

TELL us about the coming national aviation conference

We observed that in Nigeria, we don’t have any platform that is recurrent for stakeholders to sit down, access their position, analyse it, share knowledge and take necessary steps to promote cooperation, collaboration and the general progress of the industry. It is like everyone is doing their own. We don’t sit down to collaborate and cooperate. It is when you cooperate that you have synergy. So, FAAN decided to arrange, organize and implement this national aviation conference in the interest of the Nigerian aviation industry.

It is called FAAN National Aviation Conference (FNAC) because FAAN is funding it 100 per cent. We are doing it as a form of national service for the whole industry.

It is from FAAN to all the agencies, airport stakeholders, passenger organizations, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), the media, labour unions, ACI, ICAO, embassies, and state governments across Nigerians and other interested organizations.

There will be lectures and presentations by the industry stakeholders on their key concerns. In the beginning, FAAN was trying to develop topics for the participants, but we agreed later that participants should present papers on critical issues they want to bring to the industry. This included all the aviation agencies. Also, the airlines will present papers on their most critical areas of concern. The event will be hosted annually and it will be a major event for FAAN. The major substance is to promote collaboration and cooperation toward the development of the industry and all stakeholders. It is a Nigerian event and it is for Nigerian aviation. Things we might discuss may not be outside Nigeria. So, we will look at ourselves and discuss issues as they affect us. Nigerian experts will have much more at stake than foreign experts. So, that is why we are making it a Nigerian aviation industry issue.

On the 24hrs operations of airports

FAAN wants all airports to operate 24/7 because it is a business for FAAN. We earn our revenue from that operation; we are a service delivery agency, but the challenge is will the 24/7 pay for itself? Somebody has to pay for the 24/7 operations. Will the business pay for itself? If we open an airport with just only three landings, FAAN will close down. No organization in the world will do that. Even, if you go to Europe, you will find out that many airports are sunrise to sunset. You can operate an airport even from sunrise to midday so that everybody that knows should go around that window.

FAAN cannot operate an airport that we cannot breakeven, because we are already challenged. We want a 24/7 airport, but we need to know if the business will be sustainable.

At first, some of the businesses may look as if they are sustainable even for the next two years. So, somebody must be ready to have the business model to sustain 24/7 operations. I cannot commit to 24/7 operations when you are not coming.

One airline came to us that they wanted to operate 24/7 operations to Yola and wanted FAAN to extend the time for them, but I told them that we will need a lot of money to do that. An airline may decide to open a route today and dispatch just one aircraft, but FAAN, NAMA and co will have to mobilize personnel, ensure efficiency and fix facilities that can be moved in and out. Sometimes, fuelers and handlers will be needed. We don’t want a situation whereby an airline will start a route now and in the next few months, it will stop such route due to a lack of passengers. Then, who will pay for all we have gone through?

FAAN is a business; we pay our salaries, and wages and we have to be sure that we will break-even when we do that.

Security and steps taken to beef it up at the airport.

We have resolved the security issue and the manifestation is on the ground. On that singular incident, there is still an investigation ongoing, but we can’t make any public statement until the result of the investigation is out. There are a lot of theories on it. I won’t dwell much on this until the report of the investigation is out.

However, government processes and due process, which are necessary also matter in all we do. A private airport can have a problem today and by tomorrow, it can deploy the solutions to it. We know the solutions to the problems we have, but we have to ensure that the due processes are followed for us to implement them.

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Additional issues arise when you have to bring the equipment from abroad; there is manufacturing, shipping and others. Some things you can know, identify them and before you can ensure a solution, it may take you up to a year. I was a Director of Operations in FAAN when we realized there is a need for total surveillance of the whole airport. I went to Munich, Germany by the end of 2018 or so, and identified the company, and they came to do a lead assessment twice; marking and survey. They gave us the estimate for visual and thermal infrared cameras. Visuals to cover the areas for a whole day – sunrise to sunset and thermal from sunset to early morning. If a rabbit is walking within an 8km radius, which is 16km in diameter, they will pinpoint it. We got that camera and at the whole airport, I don’t think you will get that 16 as a diameter. The runway is 3.7km or 3.8km and we are buying about four of those cameras to cover the airfield.

We started procurement and the minister was very supportive. As of now, the procurement has been concluded and Mr President approved it last year, part payment has already been made to the manufacturer and the Chief of Staff and I went to the factory to ensure that what we are buying is what we are getting. We were there in November. The delivery will happen within the next one or two months and then installation follows. This is fully automated; it will be spanning 360 degrees. We already know the solutions to all the challenges we are going through, the minister knows and even Mr President knows too.

In the meantime, we already set up the manual patrol; the military is going around the airport facilities for improved security.

This automation is not just in Lagos, but includes Abuja airport. We also bought two motorized pieces of equipment. If you have any security challenges at any airport, we will drive it there and deploy it. Inside the vehicle, we have three screens that we can use to monitor and protect the airports.

On the scarcity and expensive Jet A1 cost.

We really sympathize with the airlines on the scarcity of Jet A1. If anything affects the airlines, it will affect FAAN and every other thing or organization. They are struggling to remain in business and people say they should increase prices. Some of these things are easier said than done, but you have to understand that the whole of aviation is all about enabling the economy. You cannot just be increasing prices arbitrarily. Your revenue will drop.

We are working actively with the airlines with the DG NCAA and I can tell you that there is a lot of positive action from the government.

What’s the update on the new terminal and relocation.

The terminal is opened. When you commission a new terminal, you have to do operational and transfer before you can move. 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 teething problems. It is only here that people complain. Nowhere in the world that you have a perfect system. No airport operates in isolation from its environment. The aviation industry keeps evolving when the challenges happen and are tackled immediately.

The relocation is a phased relocation to the new terminal. 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 o that the morning will be reduced and the evening. 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 stakeholder 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 about 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 a national interest and unfortunately, Nigerians are joining them to condemn the industry.

Challenges

Some of the equipment we have are ageing. Some of them are even 40 years and above. As the current management in FAAN, we want to make sure that anybody who comes as the next managing director of FAAN would have their job easier. We are going out of our way to make sure we do our own. Now, we are fixing the 18L. You cannot land on 18L at night, now, the contractor is back. He was supposed to finish in March, but the cables he had were of low quality and we are insisting on original ones. So, he said he will fix it by June or latest July. So, after nine years, we are fixing some of these things that were abandoned and we are also starting new ones, including baggage handling, and the central cooling system.

We contacted the airfield lighting company in Europe to fix the new ones, and overhaul the whole airfield lighting system. There was no overhaul in 42 years. That is also in the process. We are fixing things so that those that come after us will get things easier.

Activities in the last three years

Major repair of ageing equipment and components. I gave you an example in Lagos; abandoned runway and airfield lighting. Also, the key elements at MMA and any other airports were not replaced, but now, we are replacing them. Some were last replaced in either 1980 or 1985, now, we are replacing them. It is only the air-conditioning system that we have not yet procured, but we are processing it and the airfield lighting, but all other basic ones like disabled aircraft, baggage handling and other basic ones that the people see every day, we have started with them. The avio bridges, we have started with them and that is in terms of infrastructure.

We set up a committee last year because we saw that most of the facilities are aged. These equipment were supposed to be replaced every 15 years, but some have gone 25 to 30 years. So, we have a committee that is working and they are almost completing it. They gave us the state of the equipment for all the airports so that we can make use of it, work with the ministry and use it to know their status so that we can plan.

This year, we will work in Akure, Borno, and Sokoto and next year, we will work in Port Harcourt, Benin and Yola. We don’t have all the money to fix all, but we will do the entire airport gradually. So, when I leave here, those coming after me will be making use of it.