Chinedu Eze
Stakeholders within the Aviation business have referred to as on the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to urgently rehabilitate the outdated worldwide terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMIA) Lagos, to avert main security threats resulting in incessant hearth incidents on the facility.
There have been hearth incidents on the terminal together with the incident in September final yr and one other, which occurred in April this yr, allegedly brought on by electrical issues.
Business insiders warn that these are auguries of tragic incident in ready if FAAN and the federal authorities don’t intervene and rebuild the infrastructure, noting that the brand new terminal is method too small to accommodate airways and passengers.
They’re of the view that the outdated terminal should be put in use as a result of the brand new terminal has restricted capability.
The nation supervisor of a world airline who works on the terminal, instructed THISDAY that FAAN ought to perform forensic survey of the terminal and insisted that the issue of the terminal is mismanagement, noting that there is no such thing as a weekly, month-to-month and annual upkeep schedule of the airport, which is in use day by day and which has existed for about 40 years.
“The brand new terminal is just not an airport terminal regardless of the cutting-edge amenities in it. These are simply aesthetics. Pragmatically, this outdated terminal was constructed with worldwide normal on how an airport terminal must be, however sadly we don’t have good upkeep tradition on the airport.
“The standard factor about Nigeria is that in authorities companies and in public service, officers like to present contracts so as to get their very own reduce; in any other case, there ought to have been established system, whereby there may be upkeep construction on the terminal, the place you will have engineers, electricians and different technical personnel who’re put to work to take care of the airport. They’re there however they’re idle as a result of any job that might be completed is contracted out and that’s the reason the terminal is in such deplorable situation,” he stated.
In response to him, to resume the terminal all of the avio bridges (air bridge the place passengers go via to board their flights) must be modified, the conveyor belts for shifting checked in baggage must be modified and those for arrivals must also be modified along with the tiles that have been used to interchange the extra sturdy ones that got here with the construction.
He additionally suggested that the ceilings on the terminal must be modified and the central cooling system must be restored.
“You can’t set up models of air conditioners and anticipate them to present you environment friendly cooling system and all these models devour energy and take up areas. In case you go to Ikeja Mall you will notice they’ve central cooling system. That’s the method public amenities are constructed to make sure the effectivity of the cooling system,” he additional stated.
Additionally, the Managing Director of Flight and Logistics Options Restricted, Amos Akpan, instructed THISDAY that the outdated worldwide terminal wanted a targeted and really detailed common upkeep.
He stated due to the age of the ability, there must be fixed upkeep, including that efforts must be made to construct extra construction to show the airport to an environment friendly hub with transit terminals.
“The terminal is outdated and has been used above put in site visitors capability for a protracted interval. Our Minister of Aviation and FAAN are planning to construct new infrastructure to show Murtala Mohammed worldwide airport right into a hub. However whereas that plan is ongoing, FAAN should take note of very common inspection of the current amenities. FAAN should be intentional about repairs, substitute and improve of present amenities in that terminal. Technicians should submit weekly studies of standing for appraisal by the administration. All of us are conscious the tools and amenities are outdated, so to maintain it performing at put in capability, common upkeep is vital,” he stated.
He added that there must be inside buyer satisfaction like on-time approval and launch of funds to buy spares, which is important to satisfying the exterior buyer – the passengers and the airline operators.
“Synergy between FAAN and customers is based on readability of communication. For example, the automotive port and automotive rent operators seems rowdy, aggressive, and dangerous to guests – it’s not buyer pleasant. With cameras all over the place and adequate foot patrol personnel, it’s attainable to remove miscreants, which consists largely present and ex-staff of organisations within the airport. Because the terminal supervisor, Omoshola, died by automotive bomb about twenty three years in the past, the underground parking tons have been closed. It may accommodate the automobiles of all of the workers working at that terminal. This is able to decongest the skin automotive ports for patrons,” Akpan stated.
Nonetheless, THISDAY learnt that the underground automotive park has been put into use. It’s now automotive park for FAAN and different airport employees..
Akpan additionally famous that cracks on conveyor belts must be noticeable with every day inspection and studies, which should be adopted with fast repairs or substitute and the identical goes for electrical cables, swap factors, and for digital installations.
“Additionally, an workplace with a delegated identify should be accountable for breaches, delayed repairs, and infractions. Every should have specified penalties. The time-frame should be set to complete the design for the brand new hub infrastructure in order that FAAN can current a enterprise case on it to traders. This could have occurred 15 years in the past but it surely’s higher completed now than proceed to speak about it. Different international locations are pondering of the identical challenge, some have authorized designs, some like Ethiopia have launched their very own hub amenities,” he stated.
