Industry stakeholders have given appraisal on the benefits of having a second airport in Lagos, the economic impact and how it would improve better service to airport users.
The appraisal is coming after the Lagos State government made a firm move to build an airport when it recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Summa Group, an international construction company, for the development and construction of Lekki-Epe International Airport.
Industry observers see the construction of a second airport in Lagos as a positive development, especially the choice of the location of the airport, which will provide service to a large community in Lagos island that currently have to leave very early in the morning or sleep over in Ikeja, the location of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos to board early morning flights.
When the airport is completed, it is believed that it will service the island community that will no more have to come to mainland of Lagos for domestic flight service and this, experts say, has many positive implications.
Currently the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, generates about 60 per cent of the revenues of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), even though the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, is adding more numbers in terms of passenger traffic and it is the second biggest revenue earner for FAAN, according to a recent revelation by the Managing Director of FAAN, Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku.
When the new airport in Lagos is completed and becomes operational, it is expected to reduce domestic passenger traffic from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. For the existing Lagos airport to remain competitive, it has to improve its facilities and its services to attract travellers who will otherwise use the Lekki airport.
However, the Managing Director, Flight and Logistics Solutions Limited, Amos Akpan, said: “Airport is an infrastructure provided as launch pad for socioeconomic development of the territory it is located in. So, the new airport in Lekki will provide a needed service in that area of Lagos.”
According to Akpan, “The argument for prioritization among contending development projects is left for the development agenda matched against the needs of the people in that territory. The LASG (Lagos State Government) would have put this project through a thinking process, weighing this airport project against others like: speed rail linking Ikeja to Lekki/Epe, water for all houses, electric/alternative power sufficient to run homes and businesses, modernised and available modes of mass transport, e-security infrastructures fit for 24hours lifestyle et.al.”
Speaking in the same vein, the Secretary General of Aviation Round Table (ART), Olu Fidel Ohunayo, told THISDAY that the new airport would not undermine the existing one; rather, it would enhance better service for the travellers, as it would create competitive environment that will make each service provider to strive to serve the customer better.
“I do not think it will undermined the existing airport. I want to see it as complement to the Murtala Muhammed Airport. The airport that should feel a threat should be the one in Ogun State because the catchment area will overlap. The Lekki area is supposed to take care of Lekki, Victoria Island, Epe, Epe Axis probably even the Ikorodu and Ijebu. Epe and Ikorodu would overlap with the Ogun State airport,” he said.
