The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), is considering the opening of the on-going under construction new terminals before the end January.
Captain Rabiu Hamisu Yadudu FAAN Managing Director, through a recent interview, revealed that the remaining three Chinese-Nigeria funded terminals in Lagos, Kano and Enugu will be delivered and commissioned before the 20th of January 2020.
Capt. Yadudu over the weekend explained that all things being equal,
“we expect to have Kano commissioned before the 20th of this month, including Lagos and even Enugu. All the three (3) remaining international airports, we are working to commission them before the 20th. That is our plan but of course you plan and there could be difference because we need the businesses but of course our operations are pretty much going on but the numbers are down, only about 30-35 percent and when we open more it will be better and better service for our people, and for us at FAAN it will mean more businesses and our stakeholders.
He stated the need to transform the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) into a hub, as a vital consideration to have the airport operate efficiently and have all the essentials to meet the category it wishes to attain.
Capt. Yadudu emphasized the need to link the old and new terminal as well as the international and domestic terminals to improve transition around the airport.
“That is a an important consideration for us, to have a hub to operate it efficiently, you need these connectivity, well in the first instance, we already have a committee to have this, and part of the success of that committee is that we have a linkage between the old and the new terminal, it was completed last week, it is not commissioned because the terminal itself is not yet commissioned.
“We have a proper linkage now between the old and the new buildings and talking about connectivity between the internationals and with the domestic we are working with government, we have designs for the most suitable ways to achieve the connectivity, buses and even a light rail proposal but right now we are at the development and planning stage.
“ We have the proposals already, on Monday we even had a meeting with some of the companies bringing proposals, these are concepts that we studied and decide which one is the best by our team, the government and the ministry representatives and make sure that at the end of the day we arrive at a decision that is very practical and of course cost efficient for our operations. We have connected the two internationals, now we want to focus on how to seamlessly connect them with the domestic terminals.