By Tobi Adetunji
Operator of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2 (MMA2), Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), has/ indicated interest to bid in the ongoing concession of four major airport terminals by the Federal Government.
The Chairman of BASL, Dr Wale Babalakin, disclosed this, in a chat with journalists at the MMA2 terminal in Lagos.
The airport boss revealed that Bi-Courtney had the operational experience from running airport terminals for 14 years.
“On the ongoing process to concession four of the major airports, in more organized climes, they will check the track records of those who have done it well.
“In advanced countries, they will offer them a right of first refusal before opening the process.
“Hence, BASL has within its limited resources operated MMA2 for 14 years and has run the terminal well despite challenges it has come to face from government,” he said.
Dr. Babalakin added that only Nigerian bidders who had the capacity should be interested to bid for the terminals and urged the Federal Government to implement the approval granted it to commence regional operations from its terminal to ease passengers’ burdens.
He also warned/ that airlines were being subjected to incalculable losses, and passengers to untold hardships by making them transit from MMA2 to the international terminal to connect flights to the West Coast.
In his words, “Before we talk about our own loss, what are the airlines losing? The airlines are bleeding because of the logistics nightmare of having to move from one terminal to the other just because we want to carry the same traffic.
“We are losing a lot of money because we invested a lot of money in creating regional wing on our platform but the exact amount we are losing, I may not know off hand,” he said.
Earlier, Chief Executive Officer of Aero Contractors, Capt. Mahmood Abdullahi, stated that the FG’s plan to concession four international airports in the country was good, urging that if done right, it would go a long way in improving Nigeria’s airport infrastructure.
According to him, “Actually, concession is good. But, just to do it right, I don’t think people will be talking about concession. To me, there is so much burden on the federal government. FG cannot do all these things.
“If we are talking about the roads, they have been taken care of by the federal government. I think it is time for the federal government to start to concession these things.
“One thing I say is doing it right. Do it in a way that the workers there are well taken care of. Once the workers there have been taken care of properly, definitely people will go for the concession.
“Because if we concession, I believe things will go very much better. Like I always say, which terminal is the best domestic terminal in the country today? You will find out that it is MMA2.”
Recall that in August the FG assured that federal airport workers under the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) would not face layoffs, as it planned to concession Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt airports.
Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika assured that the concession would create even more employment and correct the understaffing at international airports.