The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Saleh Dunoma has given assurance that the new terminals being built at Lagos and Abuja international airports would be ready by middle of this year.
Dunoma stated this on Tuesday while fielding questions from Aviation journalists at their Gateway Forum at Lagos airport.
Recently the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved N377.5 for infrastructural renewal of the transport system in Nigeria and the new terminals benefitted from the funds.
Also Dunoma said that plans have reached advanced stage to procure mobile Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras at the airside of major airports across the country.
The agency said that with the procurement of the mobile cameras and improvement on perimeter fencing patrol, the era of airport incursions by unscrupulous elements would be a thing of the past in the industry.
Dunoma said that the mobile CCTV cameras would cover a distance of seven kilometers and could sight even long distances at night.
Dunoma agreed that security had been the major challenge confronting the global aviation industry, stressing that as some of the challenges are tackled, the perpetrators of the act also designed new ways to beat security.
He, however, reiterated the readiness of the management to tackle the menace headlong by procuring latest security equipment at all airports.
He insisted that some of the facilities were already procured and installed at most of the airports across the country, but expansion of facilities at these airports made it necessary for FAAN to improve on some of the existing equipment on ground.
He said: “To some extent, we have these facilities in all the airports, but security challenges always come up in different forms. If you address this challenge, the challenge will come back again in another form. So, the only way out is to improve on our technology. As we speak, there are things going on at Lagos and Abuja airports to make sure that we cover all the restricted areas with CCTV cameras.
“This is ongoing; in Lagos, it is 80 per cent completed and it is about 70 per cent completed in Abuja. We will soon commission this and once it is commissioned, our people will sit up and monitor these restricted locations. This is going to help us a lot.
“In addition to that, we are buying another technology, which is a mobile system that has cameras on it and can see up to seven kilometers. So, we will position it and even at night, it has cameras that will watch all the sensitive areas of the airport; the runway, apron and the other restricted areas.”
Dunoma further hinted that the agency was collaborating with State Governments with airports in their domain especially in the area of facility upgrade.
According to him, FAAN had signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with several of the states on how to upgrade their facilities, assuring that this would be followed to the letter for improved environment.
He declared that most of the airports are constructed to international standards as their promoters usually meet with the agency and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) before commencing work on them.
“The State Governors with airports don’t work in isolation; they work with us so that at the end of the day, whatever they provide in terms of technology and others, they are cleared by us. They can then go ahead with their plans,” he said.
On the indebtedness of airlines and other concessionaires in the sector, Dunoma said FAAN was reconciling the debts with its clients at regional level and would continue to do this until the debts are reduced to the barest minimum, but observed that aviation industry worldwide allows credit.
