Experts seek airports’ privatization

Some aviation experts have called for the privatization of airports instead of their remodeling.

The development or expansion of airports’ infrastructure, they argued, should depend on the availability of land, funds and resources.

President of Aviation Roundtable Captain Dele Ore and an air traffic controller consultant, Mr Sam Akerele, made this suggestion while assessing the state of domestic airlines.

They said as long as NCAA does not make public, the financial standing of airlines, passengers will continue to think that they are solid.

They said that a situation where some carriers cannot carry out regular maintenance of their aircraft, pay insurance premium and their financial obligation to staff calls for concern, affirming that some of the airlines may pack up soon. .

They said: "We recommend a complete privatization of airports in the industry rather remodelling of the airports. The development or expansion of airports infrastructure at our airports should depend on the availability of lands, funds and resources.

Unfortunately, most land at the older airports have been encroached upon by state government, local authorities and private individuals.

Rather than remodel the airport, the government should adopt the policy of public-private partnership to construct new terminals in Lagos, which is handling 70 per cent of domestic and international passenger traffic.A transit lounge should be set up for transiting passengers to minimize delays in facilitation procedures.

The cargo village at the airport is a different world, at night , far from what should be seen around an airport in terms of security arrangement."

On security upgrade at the airports across the country, they said : " There is competition and rivalry among security agencies at the airport such that there is buck - passing among the agencies in the event of breaches.

FAAN is the designated authority responsible for co-coordinating airport security, but it cannot exert authority over the operation of any of the government security agencies. Based on this, an independent aviation security establishment similar to the Transportation and Security Administration ( TSA), in the United States should be established in Nigeria.

Perimeter fencing should be enforced and broken fences at the airports should be tackled especially at a time when there is terrorist threat across the country."

Meanwhile, the Aviation Round Table (ART) has recommended for the scrapping of the Federal Ministry of Aviation, calling for the Federal Ministry of Transport to supervise the various segments of transportation in the country.

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