- FG to Continue Airport Remodelling Despite Concession Plans
Indications have emerged that the Federal Government’s plan to upgrade all the 22 airport terminals in the country will not be affected by the proposed concession of some of the airports.
Our correspondent had reported that with the failure of the airports remodelling project of the former administration, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration had said it would replicate the repairs of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and the facelift of the terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, in all airport terminals across the country.
It was gathered that upon the completion of work in Lagos and Abuja, the Port Harcourt International and Akanu Ibiam International Airport terminals’ facelift would to be the next in line until all the 22 airports across the country were upgraded.
The General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, told our correspondent on Friday that there would not be any change in plans despite the approval by the Federal Government to give out all the international airports in the country to private investors as concession.
Yakubu said, “The concession is not an immediate thing; so, while it is ongoing, FAAN will still go on with its statutory functions. All our remodelling plans are still in place; we are not stopping because airports are going to be given out as concession.
“Construction work is still ongoing at the four terminals that we were working on before the concession approval and everything will continue normally. The remodelling of these major ones will continue without any disruption. The other airports will be taken care of when the concession has taken place.”
Yakubu stated that areas expected to be fixed at the airports were the chillers, travellators and escalators, conveyor belts currently out of use, check-in counters and toilets, among others, adding that work had already commenced at the terminal of Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, while two terminals were being constructed at the Port Harcourt airport, one by the immediate past government and another one to cater to the needs of passengers presently being attended to under a tent.