Nigerian Aviation Industry Needs Radical Overhaul and Modernization

Last week, for a period of about two hours, passengers who arrived aboard various international flights through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport(MMIA), Lagos were subjected to the ordeal of waiting for many hours for their luggage on account of the malfunctioning of the conveyor belt. In the excruciating heat, passengers waited for hours to claim their luggage after they had disembarked from the aircraft.


At the same airport a few days earlier, owing to power outage for about four hours, flight activities were disrupted. Undoubtedly, a complete overhaul of the infrastructure at the nation’s airports is imperative and long overdue.

Most of the facilities at Nigeria’s airports are decades old and out of order. The endemic corruption in Nigeria is perhaps at the root of the infrastructural decay evident at the airports. The airports collects huge revenue from airlines, passengers, and sundry businesses operating within and around the airports yet the airports are an eyesore. In fact, concessionaires such as I-Cube West Africa, Maevis Nigeria Limited, Pan Express Services Nigeria, pay significant fees to the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

For instance, the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) had in 2008 engaged the services of I-Cube West Africa to collect revenues from users of the access toll of the agreement that the concessionaire would remit forty million naira (N40, 000,000.00) monthly to its account. The agency has admitted that it cannot much impact because its responsibilities far outweigh the funds available to it, owing largely to the indebtedness of most of its concessionaires. On their own part too, some of the concessionaires like Pan Express Services Nigeria have also credited their non-delivery to the indebtedness of the airlines. Assuming it is true as alleged that some of the concessionaires or airlines are indebted to the agency, it should disengage their services or withdraw their privileges, as the case may be. Nothing compels the FAAN from further engaging the services of the offending concessionaires in the light of their non-delivery. However, it must be noted that some of the concessionaires like I-Cube West Africa, has been remitting the monthly amount agreed by the parties. It is then a case of priorities. In any event, the comfort and safety of passengers and other users of the airports should be of paramount consideration to avoid a degeneration of events from delays at the airports to far worse incidents.

In conclusion, the events stated above would be a signal to the authorities to rise up and ensure that infrastructure at all the airports in the country is regularly maintained to forestall future problems.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ms. Nkay Onyeaso
Ms. Nkay Onyeaso is a Partner at Blackfriars Solicitors
Source : http://www.blackfriars-law.com/