Airport Concession: Workers' Interest Will Be Protected - Aisuebeogun

By Sade Ayodele, Aviation Correspondent, Lagos

As workers of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and other aviation agencies across the country continue to agitate about what would become their lot after the Federal Government finally concludes on its concession plan for the nation's airports, Managing Director of FAAN, Richard Aisuebeogun, may have put to rest the fears expressed by workers, saying the legal framework of the concession currently being muted by government is in the interest of the workforce.

He said this during the just concluded Airport Council International Conference (ACI) Africa regional conference in Accra, Ghana.

Minister of State for Air Transportation, Felix Hyatt, had said only concession and intervention of the private sector in airport operations would enable the country operate safe and more efficient airports in line with international standards.

Participants at the ACI conference expressed the view that government can no longer cope with the demands of airport operations on the continent.

Aisuebeogun stated that the practice in developed countries has been to shift to the public/private participation model, adding that Nigeria cannot be an exemption.

"I am glad you said government can no longer meet the challenge of managing airports vis-a-vis the increasing modern aircraft that are brought in by airline operators in Nigeria. "The truth is that from this conference, you would see that two-thirds of the airports are under private managers and the purpose for this is to create efficient, secure and safe airport operations management for the benefit of users. We are not exempted, right now we are in that process; it's a well-mapped out process", he said.

Aisuebeogun said the Nigerian government is carefully mapping out strategies in the framework that will take care of the Nigerian workers.

According to, him there is no other choice for government to turn around airport operations in Nigeria except by brining in the private sector, who has the wherewithal to do it.

"The Federal Government has actually deliberately looked into this whole process carefully and I want to tell you that the conclusion of this process will be to the benefit of the traveling public and indeed, the work force. Let me reassure you that the workforce is completely acknowledged. They will be taken care of in the concession programme of the government.

"It has become imperative that for us to effectively manage our airports, we need private managers. People who will apply business modules that will help drive efficiency, the era when government puts its resources into the management of infrastructure is near over. We have grown over the years and we have developed our infrastructure, now is the time for us to invite private managers who are competent and have demonstrated it to now come and help in the management of infrastructure and the only way we can do this is through concession programmes.

"One thing I want to assure the workforce of is that there will be due consideration; due process shall be followed in such a way that the workers benefit from it. Whoever the concessionaire, he is going to find some of them useful to the system because there professionals".

Aisuebeogun noted that his administration had striven to make sure many of the staff are retained by any concessionaire, who will eventually win come in by initiating training and retraining exercise for the staff.

"Since my assumption of office in November 2007, I have trained over 165 personnel, both in the field and at the head office. As I speak to you now, seven airport managers are in Singapore academy for airport strategic management. This is to ultimately develop capacity and with infrastructure in place, the airport becomes more efficient", he added.

On the fear that investors are scared of investing in Nigeria business because of the environment and that whether the concession would not be a monopoly, he replied that government has considered the different models of concession that abound, adding that it would only settle for the best model that will not mortgage the interest of Nigerians.

"Right now, the legal framework for the concession is still being developed and of course, conducive environment has to be created, once that is done, everybody will be informed and that is supposed to be the guidelines for the programme.

"We need also to appreciate the fact that we have models and all of these are driven by business interest. We have taken cognisance of all the models globally, even within the Nigerian community. For instance, there are private terminals at the ports authority. What I am saying in essence is that it doesn't erode the authority of the Nigerian ports authority. Let me assure that we are mindful of those business models and the best model for aviation would be adopted", he said.

On plans the authority has for the airports before the concession plans are concluded, he said it is currently overhauling some of the old facilities, especially the generating sets at the various airports for optimum operations.

Infrastructure at the airports is as old as the airport. Many of them were installed between 15 and 20 years ago without plans for renewal.

"We are not sleeping; our engineers are working round the clock, they are being tasked on power, runway and the apron. For instance, the debasing of the apron was done recently after it was observed that it was done for some years. We have to get the contractor to do this immediately".

He said the authority is currently in talks with a contractor that will put in place modern baggage handling system, adding that the issue of the old conveyor belt is a major concern to me to him.

"As I speak to you now, we are discussing with a company, which has a proposal for baggage handling system. It's a modern baggage -handling infrastructure, which will help improve services. At the end of the day, we will forward it to the ministry to grant approval and then we move to installation.