Nahimah Ajikanle Nurudeen
7 October 2008
Lagos — With more airlines operating from the newly constructed multi-billion naira Murtala Muhammed Airport 2 (MMA 2), the terminal is getting congested like what used to be at the old domestic terminal.
A year after its commissioning by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, its facility utilization has just reached 40 per cent of installed capacity.
The relocation of the Virgin Nigeria to the terminal after a prolonged face-off between the airline and the Federal Government, has made activities to beef up at the terminal building.
Expected to join Virgin Nigeria are Dana Air and Afrijet which will commence schedule domestic operations very soon. Arik Air is also preparing to move from the General Aviation Terminal (GAT).
It could be recalled that the contract for the construction of the terminal was awarded in 2003 to Bi - Courtney Limited, the parent company of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited on concession by the Federal Government to design, build and operate the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, Domestic Terminal and ancillary facilities on a land area of 20, 000m2.
The project comprises an Airport Terminal building, a multi-story car park and an apron. The Bi - Courtney Limited set out to work promptly with the aim of building a world class Airport Terminal that will be the pride of Nigerians and promote Lagos as a major hub in Africa.
The company sought a consortium of investment to complete the project from Oceanic Bank International Plc. and by March 2007, Zenith Capital Limited led six banks - Oceanic bank International Plc, Zenith bank Plc, GT bank Plc, First bank Plc, First City Monument bank Plc and Access bank Plc to put together N20 billion part-financing for the completion of the MMA Terminal 2.
MMA2 currently is the first major BOT project of its magnitude in the area of infrastructure development which was completed successfully by a Nigerian company.
The company, with this project, has provided about 1,000 employment opportunities for both young and old Nigerians making its positive contributions to the Nigerian economy.
To extend its capacity beyond domestic flights, and for take -off of regional operations, MMA2 is presently going through expansion works on both the apron and fingers of the terminal.
The terminal, with facilities ranging from passenger drop - off canopy, a departure and arrival hall with a holding capacity of 4,000 passengers, equipped with information display and a state of the art public address system, electronic check-in counters and baggage handling facilities, VIP, Executive and Airline lounges.
Other facilities include three dual head walkways(providing 6 'jet ways' linking the departure / arrival halls to aircrafts, eight remote aircraft boarding / disembarking locations and bus facilities which include a mini bus station with four gates among others.
Passengers at MMA2 have confessed their good experience of the terminal, saying that though it might not really be up to the level of the airports abroad, yet Nigeria have to start somewhere to meet global standard.
Although the Federal Government, through the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has stated its interest to refurbish the airports, particularly the Lagos airport terminal following the increase in passenger traffic flow and overstretched existing facilities.
The authority, under the current management, has shown readiness to find a lasting solution to infrastructure decay in the airports caused by neglect.
However, records indicated that passenger traffic has risen to 8.4 million from 4 million in the last decade. Globally, air traffic is rising astronomically, forcing government to increase the size of their terminals or construct new ones.
An airport terminal is a building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from aircrafts.
Due to the hefty amount of money involved in maintaining and upgrading facilities, most of the infrastructure could not be placed at the required standard to meet with world aviation level as most of the sub-Saharan African countries, the aviation infrastructure is in a poor state.
Although there has been a consistent increase in passenger traffic in recent years, for economic reasons, there has been no corresponding increase in aviation infrastructure development.
The concept of Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the development and running of aviation infrastructure and services, first came up as a result of the fire incident at the old domestic terminal but also, there is need for less government involvement in the commercial aspects of aviation because of the high cost of airport projects, budgetary constraints and increasing pressure from other sectors.
Government can however, concession the airports to private managers under a long lease agreement by giving rights to private companies to build, operate and transfer or a joint ownership arrangement with private sector participation.
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