…Says It Is Good For Airports To Operate 24/7 But…
The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria(FAAN), Capt. Hamisu Yadudu has disclosed that the agency has plans to decentralise important operations and management of the agency in the next two weeks as so many things are concentrated at the headquarters in Lagos.
This is just as he also revealed that the welfare of the agency’s workers will also be decentralised and that this will help to check laxity in the system.
He made this known while speaking during a courtesy call on the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents(LAAC) at the League’s Secretariat, Murtala Muhammed Airport(MMA), Lagos.
“We intend to decentralise essential operations and management of FAAN. A lot of things are concentrated around the headquarters and you cannot be macro managing from the headquarters all other airports. The headquarters will be doing a lot. From the first day I assumed office, I told them we will be decentralizing; each airport will be responsible for itself, but we will monitor and do surveillance of the facilities.
“I think in the next two weeks we will start We have used the last two years doing the planning and now, we have developed the Key Performance Indexes (KPI). About 90 or 100 items are in all these. With this, the issue of laxity in the system can be checked mated. This will make us to know those who are messing it up and we won’t wait till the end of the year before we take an action.
“Even, the welfare of our staff, we will be decentralised and the managers responsible. We will also ensure accountability. If your manager is messing up, it is easier for you to know. Also, we have started the scholarship exercise for all our staff and the best five students in each of the five regions will get the scholarship and FAAN will make sure we fund their university education,” he said.
Yadudu said that the decentralisation shows the management is not ready to hold on to power.
On plans to make all airports in the country operate 24 hours, the Managing Director said that FAAN wants the entire airports to operate 24/7 because it will boost the revenue profile of the agency but that the challenge is whether some of these airports will be able to generate funds for themselves.
According to him, “FAAN want all airports to operate 24/7 because it is a business for FAAN. We earn our revenue from that operations; we are a service delivery agency, but the challenge is will the 24/7 pay for itself? Somebody has to pay for the 24/7 operations. Will the business pay for itself? If we open an airport with just only three landings, FAAN will close down. No organisation in the world will do that. Even, if you go to Europe, you will find out that many airports are sunrise to sunset. You can operate an airport even for sunrise to midday so that everybody that knows should go around that window.”
FAAN, he contended cannot operate an airport that cannot break even, because the agency is already challenged, adding that though the agency wants 24/7 days’ airport, but that it need to know if the business can be sustainable.
“At first, some of the businesses may look as if they are sustainable even for the next two years. So, somebody must be ready to have the business model to sustain 24/7 operations. I cannot commit to 24/7 operations when you are not coming,” he said.
Speaking further, Yadudu said that an airline came to FAAN that it wanted to operate 24/7 operations to Yola and wanted FAAN to extend the time for it, but he told the airline that FAAN needs a lot of money to do that, adding that an airline may decide to open a route today and dispatch just one aircraft, but that for FAAN, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency(NAMA) and others have to mobilise personnel, ensure efficiency and fix facilities that can be move in and out.
He added that sometimes, oil marketers and ground handlers will be needed and that FAAN does not want a situation where an airline starts a route and in the next few months, it will stop such route due to lack of passengers, wondering who will pay for all the will pay for what they have put in place and what they have gone through?
In his words, “FAAN is a business; we pay our salaries, wages and we have to be sure that we will break even when we do that. Who will nurture the airports for sustainability? They can be sustained, but who will pay for those periods, he asked?
