Bi-Courtney Decries MMIA Low Revenue

Five years after the Murtala Mohammed International Airport
(MMIA 2) terminal became operational under the Build, Operate and Transfer
(BOT) arrangement, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL) says the
facility is being maintained from the money generated from other businesses.

The company’s spokesman, Stephen Omalale said that it had
been tough managing the terminal, because of high cost of maintenance and the
inability of the company to generate enough money from the facility.

He said for the five years that the terminal had been in
operation it had not recorded total blackout as witnessed in other airports in
the country because the company had continued to provide reliable and modern
alternative power supply.

He said that the company was upgrading its power system in
order to ensure that electricity supply was adequately sustained at the
facility.

“Today, we have four giant generators. Those generators are
five years old. We didn’t wait for them to break down but we are already
upgrading the power system. The upgrade is to enhance the alternative source of
power supply. It is going to be in phases. We have brought in two brand new
generators and we will provide another two in the second phase.

“We are investing a lot in power supply. We are also
investing a lot in maintenance. These are aspects of maintenance we carry out
every day. This is whether it is only one airline operating, you must carry out
maintenance of certain things.”

He said the terminal had been recognized as the cleanest in
the country, stressing that the management of BASL would want to sustain the
effort by ensuring that the facility was adequately maintained.

“We spend a lot of money to keep this place going. That is
one of the challenge we are facing.”

The second challenge is that people owe us. Airlines owe us,
some clients; some tenants here owe us. The Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria and Arik are fighting over what belongs to us going by the concession
agreement we had, that GAT (General Aviation Terminal) belongs to us.”

Stories By Reward Akwu