The Managing Director of Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr. Saleh Dunoma has explained why many airports in Nigeria are undergoing serious reconstruction activities. In an interview, he said “the target of his agency for the ongoing facilities renewal and structural expansion is to reposition every airport for bigger traffic and safety”.
He said “Majority of Nigerian airports are currently construction sites. If you go to some airports now, you will notice that it’s very difficult for passengers to move around.
“Construction works are ongoing in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, Enugu and others are currently under reconstruction and we have huge buildings coming up including terminal buildings.
“The sizes of new structures coming up at airports have made contractors to take massive areas of the airports, thus causing movement restrictions within the airports that are undergoing reconstruction works.
He said the construction scenarios remain a huge challenge to us at FAAN and the passengers who have to meander their way either to the aircraft or arrival points, saying “I want to appeal to passengers and other airport users to please bear with us as we reposition the airports to serve Nigeria better”.
“The essence of the structural expansion is to fall in line with the expected increase in capacity in our airports.
Whereas available car parts areas have been taken by construction works, new car parts are also coming up.
“We have remodeled some of our terminal buildings to meet current realities. We have also installed so many new facilities including conveyor belts. In some airports, the jobs are completed while we are still working on some.
For example, in Port Harcourt and Kaduna, we are still on it but will deliver them soon. In Jos, we are still on it.
Dunoma noted that work has been completed to some extents in a few airports including Lagos, “In fact quite a number of remodeling projects have be delivered in the airports and we are still on the go.
“Depending on the funding at our disposure, we will continue to prioritize and deliver the projects.
“I must say that so far so good, because more than 20 or 30 years ago, it was not like this in many of our airports.
On additional security details FAAN boss revealed that “we have also installed new digital surveillance systems in the airports as part of the new security architecture”.
“In Lagos, we have completed a lot of installation and now, we are working on the perimeter fencing. The CCTV will capture every angle of the airport both in and outside for maximum protection and surveillance.
According to him, “We have what we call the security committee at every airport made up of all the security agencies. We all work as a group to see that there is no breach. The committees are chaired by the Airport manager. The security committee is driven by a security programme which clearly spells out everybody’s responsibility,” he maintained.
