The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of West Link Airlines, Capt. Ibrahim Mshelia has said the failure of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the corruption in the system are the main reasons conveyor belts frequently break down at airports across the country.
Mshelia, who was peeved by the frequent breakdown of conveyor belts at most of the airports controlled by FAAN, expressed dismay at the failure of the agency to carry out proper maintenance of the equipment.
According to him, every machine has its maintenance procedure and the conveyor belts are supposed to be serviced at intervals. He noted that a humongous amount of money is voted for this purpose each year, but regretted that some of the machines may not have been serviced for almost a decade by FAAN, yet are deployed for passenger processing.
Inherent corruption: He attributed this to inherent corruption in the system and called for a change of attitude for the sector to move forward. He said:
- “The thing is supposed to be serviced every two minutes. For example and if you go to the books, money is voted. But if you go to the people managing the conveyor belt, they’d tell you they have not serviced it in the last 20 years. So, where is the money going?
- “Corruption is killing this equipment at the airports, lack of attention due to corruption because every machine being designed has its servicing procedures and age. This is an airport we are talking about, and everything is done for safety and timing. We should endeavour to do things properly and this problem will go away.
- “Conveyor belts will not break down and if it does, it’s once in a blue moon. This is acceptable, but at the rate at which I hear conveyor belts breaking down and look at the obsolete things we have in the airport, why can’t we upgrade them when we should? So it is still about our intention to do the right things or not.”
Inadequate equipment: Mshelia also decried the inadequate counters for passengers’ check-in, especially at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), where he said the facilities are not optimally utilised.
He emphasised that while the airlines have grown over the years, the facilities had remained static or degenerating within the same period.
He insisted that check-in counters are part of suitable accommodation to process passengers, stressing that a terminal building should be spacious enough to take the number of intending passengers, which he said was lacking in the sector.
- “Now, I think over the years what we’ve done, we just keep taking in the airlines and we don’t do the infrastructure expansion.
- “There is infrastructure, but the capacities of airlines have overwhelmed it and one wonders why all these years nothing was done to expand it until only recently that they are doing some expansion,” he said.
Mshelia explained that it takes an average of five minutes to process a passenger in Nigeria, but said when the facilities are inadequate, the airlines would delay flights, while congestion would increase.
Problematic conveyor belts: In less than one week, conveyor belts at the Abuja and Benin airports as well as the Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2), Lagos, under the control of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), have broken down consistently. The breakdowns led to passenger delays.
For instance, on December 22, the conveyor belt and other service facilities at MMA2 broke down, causing countless delays to flight operations and increased pressure on the airlines.
The airlines complained that the poor services at the terminal were “killing their operations.”
The same occurred at Benin Airport, which is managed by FAAN. Departing passengers of Ibom Air and Arik Air had to wait for another six hours at the airport for processing.
Stop painting bad on our dear govt. They are doing their best under very challenging conditions. Let’s all support our leaders pls.
Unfortunately their best is not good enough – can we try and have private investors running it?? Or reduce the barriers to entry and make it easy to get a permit to build and run an airport?? So that private investors can build their own airport and let competition among various airports allow the service to thrive….
They’re best under challenging conditions? Is it not the govt creating these conditions and running the govt? Why are some so quick to accept mediocrity?
The conveyor belt has to break down for people in government to be able to steal money for its repair or maintenance – govt should not be running an airport in 2022….they are just incapable of running an airport operation….limit them to security / immigration / air traffic control and leave the rest to the private sector – the private sector won’t tolerate frequent breakdowns of the conveyor belt – they will take action and sack some people…but govt – can’t and won’t sack anyone….instead they continue to allocate money to the conveyor belt to be stolen…