After the initial chaos caused by the abrupt relocation of airlines to the new international terminal at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, normalcy has returned to the airport.
This is as the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), said it has the new terminal has the capacity to accommodate the entire 21 airlines operating from the old terminal, which is gradually being shut down for total rehabilitation by the government.
Nairametrics who was at the international terminal on Friday to monitor development, observed that, unlike the chaos that characterised Thursday, passengers are being processed more seamlessly.
Already, no fewer than seven airlines had operated from the new terminal as of Friday morning.
Some of the airlines include Virgin Atlantic Airways, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Africa World Airlines (AWA), Air Peace and TAG Angola among other carriers.
Besides, FAAN in conjunction with some of its clients had made available shuttle buses to convey passengers to the aircraft after going through the check-in formalities.
Also, other operators like Air Peace, the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) PLC and others supported the agency with more shuttle buses.
Speaking on Friday, the MMIA Regional Manager, South-West for FAAN, Mr. Ayodele Sunday who apologised on behalf of FAAN to the passengers and other stakeholders for the inconveniences experienced in the last 48 hours, said the agency had done everything to improve the passenger experience.
Sunday emphasised that FAAN had planned the relocation of the airlines and passengers to the new terminal, but the unfortunate fire incident of Wednesday, which razed a part of the terminal compelled the authority to relocate all the operating airlines to the new terminal.
- He said: “We have planned this movement but in phases. The unfortunate incident that occurred now forced us to move everyone. We want to use this opportunity to apologise to the travelling public, the airlines and the public for the inconveniences they have been going through in the last few days.
- “But, it is something that we must do and people must move. We know the passengers are going through some inconveniences, but we want to advise the passengers that it is only they would be allowed into the terminal building.
- “Those that come with meeters and greeters should tell their family members not to come in. They need to do their facilitations alone in the terminal building so that we can have seamless processes.”
He further assured that FAAN had a symbiotic relationship with other agencies at the airport.
Also, Ojali Fatusi, the Terminal Manager, Airport 2, FAAN, said the agency had taken control of the situation.
She reiterated that all the facilities to make for seamless facilitation of passengers had been installed, but lamented that some of the staff of the airlines and the ground handling companies were yet to be trained on the facilities.
- “The ones we have here are automatic. We needed to have trained them before they started making use of the facilities. We are still in the process and we are talking to the handlers so that they can get their supervisors trained on how to use the facilities we have here appropriately.
- “A lot of the people are not actually travelling, they are mixing up with the travellers and they are actually more than the travellers. If you go outside now, the non-travelling people are being moved further away from the terminal so that we can attend to the passengers.”
She also assured that FAAN would relocate the concessionaires to the new facilities and also pointed out that the new facility could process about 39,000 users daily.