The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika has disclosed that the concessionaire of the 4 International Airports would provide the investment required to upgrade the existing terminals, take over the new terminals and maintain them over a period of time to be determined based on the financial assessment of each transaction.
The Minister disclosed this at the “Nigerian Airport Concession Strategy” webinar on Tuesday.
What the Aviation Minister said
The Federal Government had earlier proposed a 20 to 30-year concession tenure for four major airports billed for private ownership. The Aviation Minister said the plan would enable private investors to own, operate and recoup investments made on the international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano.
“All airports require investments in runway maintenance, navigation aids as well as terminal facilities; relatively low asset utilisation due to the limited opening hours of other smaller Nigerian airports.
“Lack of terminal capacity as the Airports fall short of gates, stands and check-in desks; the airports have not been designed as international hubs but operate separate international and domestic terminals,“ he said.
Sirika maintained that a private operator of the four main airports in the country would be able to operate the airports with an international standard and expand the facilities in accordance with traffic demand at each airport.
The minister said the authority had set minimum service levels for the concessionaire to comply with on the airport PPP Projects.
He further said that the move would provide the authority with a tool to set service standards for the operation of the terminals and secure a reliable high-level product.
“A strong aviation industry provides the country with a high connectivity, both on a domestic and international scale. This has several economic and social benefits for the country as identified in this OBC.
“These include time and cost savings for companies, efficiency gains for the economy, increased connectivity for remote regions, and improved access to health care,” he said.
He added that the airport concession strategy would be supported by private operators that would operate the airports with an international standard and expand the facilities in accordance with traffic demand at each airport.
According to him, all other facilities at the airports and existing concessions outside the Airport Terminals will still be managed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria.
“A strong aviation industry provides the country with a high connectivity, both on a domestic and international scale. This has several economic and social benefits for the country as identified in this OBC.
“These include time and cost savings for companies, efficiency gains for the economy, increased connectivity for remote regions, and improved access to health care,“ he said.
He added that the concessionaire will sign service level agreements with FAAN and NAMA to ensure that airports operate efficiently. The service level agreement will cover the Runway, Taxiway, Security and Air Traffic Management.
“FAAN will be required to provide manpower through AVSEC for security of both Airside and Landside, however, concessionaire will provide and maintain landside equipment but FAAN will continue to provide maintain Airside security equipment,“ he added.
In case you missed it
Nairametrics reported in May that the FG plans to make the Lagos, Abuja and Kano airports Special Economic Zones to boost revenues and attract investments.
Dear respected genaral , please when will your next announcement for resume internationl flights for nigeria 2021, we are all strugle due to internation airpots are not open. we would really aprecited your work behalf countery , we all very greatful of what you doing , have a nice day!!