Despite the surge in passenger traffic at major airports nationwide and attendant increase in earnings for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the steady rate of dilapidation of infrastructure at these critical facilities are disturbing, JOKE FALAJU reports.

Mojosola Abure arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport as early as 10.00 a.m. to catch an Air Peace flight to Owerri scheduled for 11.00 a.m.
She walks briskly to the check-in counter to sort her luggage. She had barely sat down on the uncomfortable iron seat at the departure lounge when her phone beeped with a message from the airline informing that the 11.00 a.m. flight had been delayed till 3.00 p.m.

Abure was vexed. Not only has she missed her meeting in Owerri, she would have to endure the long wait at the airport where you have noisy standing fans blowing hot air. Across the suffocating lounge, there are no adequate charging ports to charge phones, laptops, and other appliances.

She told The Guardian that it was one of those days that had a number of flight delays across domestic airlines. “So, the departure lounge was packed full. The most annoying part was when I tried using the toilet, it was horrible. There was water everywhere. I saw some women performing ablution in the toilet, so the whole place was in a mess.

“Before 3.00 p.m., when my flight was scheduled to take off, there was an announcement that the flight was delayed again till 4:30. At this point, the biscuits and soft drinks served by the airline were not enough to calm my nerves.

“When the flight finally took off around 5.10 p.m., I thought my travails had ended only for the flight captain to announce from the cockpit that they were making a turn back to Abuja, given that Owerri airport is a sunset airport and that they wouldn’t be able to land. We eventually flew the next day,” she said.

Like Abure, many Nigerians go through such harrowing experiences at Nigerian airports almost on a daily basis. The airport at the nation’s capital is not excluded in the infrastructure decay. The list of poor infrastructure ranges from faulty elevators, to non-functional chillers, unkept conveniences, faulty conveyor belts, faulty shuttle buses and several others.

Findings show that infrastructures at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport are not improving despite the increasing passenger traffic at the airports – as passengers continue to groan over the dilapidating facilities at the terminal building.

The infrastructural decay is not unique to the NAIA; it also spreads beyond other airports – though to varying degrees. Recently, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, had to appeal to the Kano State government to facilitate the installation of a dedicated power line to the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), to put an end to routine blackouts.

The appeal was against the backdrop of the continued power outage at the airport that has affected the cooling system. The Guardian gathered that the generating set serving the airport has been faulty for the past eight months and each time there is no public electricity supply, the terminal building is thrown into darkness and blistering heat.

From Ibadan to Akure, Enugu, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Benin, Ilorin, and many other airports, the terminal buildings are in sub-functional states, with complaints for staff and air travellers.

Notably, Nigerian airlines plying the domestic routes statutorily remit N1000 Passengers Service Charge on each ticket to the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). With an estimated 17 million passengers processed at the airport in 2023, FAAN may have generated about N17 billion revenue from PSC on the domestic routes, to adequately cater for those facilities for sound customer experience.

Available figures from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) have shown a steep increase in the number of passengers using the airport. For instance after the COVID-19 pandemic, passenger traffic in 2021 rose to 15, 765, 237, and in 2022, it went up again to 16,172,433. There was also a projection that traffic records would peak to 17 million in 2023. But not for improvements of the facilities.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Keyamo, during a working visit to the international wing of the Abuja airport had also raised concern at the poor facilities.

Keyamo had noticed that some parts of the terminal building were not as cool as expected. Airport officials had informed him that of the three cooling systems servicing the building only two are functioning as the other one was scheduled to be serviced, but the file was going through the procurement process.

Also reacting to the faulty elevator at the terminal D building of the airport, the Minister had made a commitment to ensure the airport gets a befitting elevator. As at the last check the elevator is yet to be changed.

FAAN, on the other hand, has continued to express concern over remittance of 40 per cent of its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) into the Treasury Single Account, saying the deduction has started taking a toll on the financial obligation of the agency.

A FAAN official, Philip Emeto, lamented how FAAN has been finding it almost impossible to execute capital intensive projects such as airport infrastructure rehabilitation, upgrade of terminals, provision of airfield lighting, acquisition of security equipment and many others.

Emeto said with the remittance of 40 per cent of the IGR to the TSA by the agency, including its aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenues, the government should take over the responsibility of executing FAAN projects. He stated that due to low financing, FAAN had not been able to achieve its plan to reduce the number of daylight airports in the country, through the installation of airfield lighting.

“FAAN is facing a huge financial dilemma because the same money needed to upgrade facilities and embark on training is what is remitted to the government account,” Emeto said.

However, during a ministerial press briefing recently in Abuja, Keyamo had declared that airport concession is the key to addressing the challenge of poor infrastructure bedeviling the airports.

He said: “We are starting the concession process all over again to make it more transparent. We met on ground the concession of all our major airports. We have all agreed that the bureaucracy cannot run public utilities. It’s impossible, so let’s not argue that it has been established. The bureaucracy cannot run public infrastructures that are why they call it Bu-reau-cracy.

“It means waiting for the permanent secretary, Director to sign, then taking the file to the Federal Executive Council to get approval just to change one chiller, while people are sweating at the airports.

“Changing one lift that has broken has to pass tables and people are shouting at the airport, while unfortunately the file has been passing through tables for six months and they have to wait for releases from the budget. It is not possible to see changes soon. If any minister comes to tell you we are going to perform magic, it’s a lie, that is the truth,” he said.