The frosty relationship between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL) which operates the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2 in Lagos has abated, what with the recent meeting between FAAN and BASL chief helmsmen, signaling the cessation of more than a decade feud. In this interview, the operations manager of BASL, Mr Blessing Ewah says the relationship with the ‘landlord’ has past the handshake level and its nearing a warm embrace. He also speaks on the issue of delay in starting regional operations from the terminal after spending over N600 million to put facilities in place.
Ime Akpan
Regional operation from the terminal
I am alarmed that we have not commenced regional operations because we went through the entire process, we were certified, but we have not been allowed to take off.
We are actually ready, the terminal is ready. Gates five and six here have been dedicated for regional flights. We have invested over N600 million in the facilities for this operation and we have not recouped one naira. It all started in 2014. The issue of regional operations is not a regulatory issue, it is not political and so we are dealing with that politically as well.
Everything that was required of us to put up regional operations as part of our proceedings here was fulfilled. And the process was driven by the NCAA and other regulatory authorities.
We are now in new times and we are very positive. The infrastructure for regional operations are still in place and we believe that in little or no time the government will lead the process because at the end of the day this will be for the benefit of the aviation industry if regional were to originate out of here. It would put less pressure on the international wing of the airport. I am sure the airlines will be the better for it.
Part of what we designed from the beginning for regional operations was to have a dedicated bus service to commute or move transit passengers both from here to the international wing and back, depending on international passengers who would want to link up regional.
Mending fence with FAAN
The handshake is taking place. In fact, an embrace has taken place; you are waiting to see the picture of the embrace. The notion that one person is a landlord and the other is a tenant leaves us with the thinking that one person has more right than the other. We have tried something like reconciliation. I know it was going to be like an experiment; it may work and it may not work. I know if you never risk it you will never win. That is where the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and BASL are. It doesn’t see itself as the landlord. And that is the new concept of our operation; we must all collaborate to move aviation or airport management forward.
Security at the terminal, passenger traffic
In terms of passenger facilitation, everyday you travel is the same. The difference is that when we go out there we do things right but when we come here we are at home and we all become very entitled. We will strive to do our best by putting up the best infrastructure here. We want to ensure that every passengers who comes here longs to come back. We will go the extra mile, spend extra sum to ensure we put the right infrastructure in place.
I’m not sure you are aware that there are over 200 CCTV cameras all over this terminal; 168 but the capacity is 200. We have to tell this to the world; what we want is not a place where people come to commit a crime; we want the public to know that there are CCTV cameras all over the place. Every once in a while we have this problem of passengers trying to rip off airlines. There are passengers who buy tickets just to commit crime. This place is 100% covered. We have a few blind spots; our aim is to take airport management to the next level.
In 2021 after he COVID, we had an influx of passengers; we did over 3.7 million, coming and going. The statistics are not a reflection of reality because if we did over 3.7 million at some point in time as a domestic terminal and you come down to 2.2 million it tells you that it is a reflection of the economy, not a reflection of capacity.
If an airline has the capacity to carry 152 passengers but it merely carries 80, of course that is what we will process. It is not the capacity that the airline can carry or the capacity that the airport can manage. It is a reflection of where we are as an economy right now. Last year we did 2.2 million; that is quite a drop from where we were coming from.
Coping with peak period rush
We have a slogan in our midst, the four P’s – Peak Period Preparation Plan. It is something we are working on. It started a couple of weeks ago and we will conclude on that by the end of September. Part of the processes we have in place is how to quickly process passengers from Point A to Point B. We are currently upgrading our systems because the airlines are constantly evolving the applications they use to process their passengers. How are we prepared for the end of the year flight programming, I would say you need to understand that there are lots of dynamics to it. Our facility can comfortably accommodate 3000 passengers. So, when you have flight delays, flight cancellations, flight disruptions maybe through the weather or anything that is outside our control, the most we can do is that the passengers that are left behind are comfortable and well catered for by both the airlines and the airport and that is what our PPPP is all about. Yes we are preparing for the airlines to process passengers faster and we hope that the weather will permit them to fly when they want to.
Occupancy rate at the terminal
At the moment we have 103 tenants who occupy 192 spaces, representing 67 per cent. The vacant spaces are mostly purpose-built for specific businesses. So, by and large, we are doing well in occupancy space. You see a new array of business – rentals, suites, confectionery, food, etc. If you notice, there is a bakery coming up – Old English Superstore and Bakery. A lot of people know the brand and they will be coming here because of that. As for retention, customer retention is the hallmark of a proper property management company. We have retained all the banking institutions and very soon we will be adding another one. We are constantly increasing a variety of retail operators we have here so that they can all consolidate and leverage on each other. We are also building new kiosks. In the next couple of months because of the Christmas rush you will see a new set of operators here.
Power supply to the complex
Our current power supply plans are extremely robust. We have ‘the terminal must never go down’ internal mantra and that is something we work very hard on. In order to do that we have two major electricity lines – one coming in from Isolo and the other from Ikeja. We also have four turbines; we have over 2200kva generator. We actually have six entries into the building to ensure that we are always maintaining them. We have a minimum diesel threshold in our underground tanks for our turbines. We are also exploring other options like solar. Definitely we know that we are growing and we are working hand in hand with FAAN to see how we can pull in more electricity from the system so that we are less dependent on human error and more dependent on direct system.
