Expert Hails FG’s Airports Concession Plan

Despite opposition from aviation unions and other stakeholders in aviation sector over planned concessioning of airports in Nigeria, former President of the Aviation Round Table (ART), Capt Dele Ore has commended the Federal Government ‘s resolve to concession the airports.
Ore, who made the commendation while interacting with aviation correspondents noted that the recent appointment of transaction advisers for the concessioning of the Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano airports was a step in the right direction.
He said: “I am of the opinion that government has no business in doing business. The best option for the country is for these airports to be given out to investors to enable optimal operations.
“Also, in the order of priority, there are a lot of things the government wants to spend money on such as health care, education, power and roads.
“So, concessioning of these airports will help the government to have more money to achieve its plans of getting the country out of economic recession as the case may be”.
The aviation expert cited the example of Murtala Mohammed International Airport two (MMIA2), operated by Bicourtney Aviation Services Limited, which is the only privately-owned terminal in the country.
According to him, despite the controversy surrounding the concession agreement, the terminal which recently celebrated 10 years of operation remains the best in Nigeria in terms of organisation and passenger facilitation.
On the opposition move by the unions in the sector, Ore said that the same unions had opposed the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, when he ordered the closure of the Abuja Airport to rehabilitate its runway.
“For the first time in Nigeria, a minister put his job on the line because he believed that the runway, could be delivered within the time frame and at the end of the day, he was able to achieve that.
“Today, we are celebrating the success because if he had not taken the move, the Abuja airport runway was becoming a death trap which could have caused a disaster for the country”, he said.
Ore, however, cautioned that the concession processes and procedures must be done in a very transparent manner that would be of benefit to Nigeria and Nigerians.