Minister Explains Airports Concessioning

The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika has explained that the best way to attract passengers, investors and turn the airports into hubs as they should have been is to concession them.
He said government no longer has money to invest into public property such as airports; but will not also hand them totally over to private hands, in order to ensure operating standard.
Sirika who made this known at a stakeholders interactive session in Lagos, noted that concessioning of airports will turn the condition of the nation’s gateways around.
“Government can no longer put money into public property. The best way is to concession them, but we will not privatize them because we do not want to leave them off totally. There is no other way around it, it is concession.
“Aviation is a money spinner but we must do it right, we must concession the airport, starting with the four big ones in order to grow the sector. We cannot create a hub from the airports as they are, the wide-bodied aircraft cannot be handled by these airports, the atmosphere within the airports is not ideal, it is extremely difficult to attract passengers.
“If you go to Heathrow Airport in London or Dubai, you see and experience an environment you don’t want to leave.
We are currently handling 15 million passengers annually, but with concession, the condition of the airports can be turned around.
“We can handle between 70 to 100 million passengers annually, while Lagos alone can handle 15 million if the airports are good.
“Let me tell you that about 40 per cent of passengers like to transit through fantastic airports like Dubai just because of the facilities and experience”, he said.