Management, operator deepen cargo operations at PHIA

Management of the Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA) and logistic operator have raised the bar in cargo operations for enhanced services at the facility.

The improvement, courtesy of indigenous efforts, has raised the cargo traffic volume at PHIA.To this effect, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) recently awarded PrimePort Logistics, a Port Harcourt based Logistics Company for being the best supporting indigenous company at the aerodrome.

Founder and CEO of PrimePort Logistics, Femi Adewunmi, said the recognition was an incentive for local operators to do better and continually strive for further recognitions.

“One of the challenges in Nigerians is that we always have this attitude of looking for what people are not doing right, whereas we have a lot of successes we can talk about. It is very important that those successes are recognised in order to induce more successes as this will be reflected in increased employment for the local indigene. PrimePort has clearly demonstrated this since we started our operations at the airport.

“PrimePort has grown its staff strength organically and continue to do so with a good percentage from the local and host communities. This award sets a new benchmark for other players at PH airport indigenous to attain, if they want to take the award from us next year,” Adewunmi said.He observed that back in 2014, FAAN was instrumental in supporting efforts at closing the gap in the freight forwarding operations.

FAAN had coordinated all the key stakeholders at the airport, including customs, security agencies, the airlines, and the handling companies to enhance efficiency in the cargo services.

“PrimePort invested in walkie talkies and gave all the stakeholders at the cargo airport far back as 2015. Some of them are still using them till today. These are some of the contributions we made towards better operations at the airport.“We also realised that a lot of people were flying in and out of Port Harcourt but unaware that a functional cargo business exists close by. This was an awareness problem, and the reason a lot of Port Harcourt bound cargo was routed via Lagos.”