Most of our airport runways have exceeded their lifespan – Kuku

Olubunmi Kuku, the managing director of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), has disclosed that a lot of the airport runways in Nigeria have exceeded that lifespan and therefore need urgent rehabilitation.

Kuku said this while fielding aviation industry-based questions on Television Continental recently.

She said the average lifespan of a runway is about 20 to 25 years and a lot of the runways in Nigeria have actually exceeded that time, meaning that they have been constructed since 30 to 35 years and they need to be reconstructed.

She clarified that the N580bn runway upgrade she spoke about was actually for over 17 runways across Nigeria.

“And it’s not just the runways. It includes the runways, perimeter roads, and fencing. So I’ve seen some commentary where people are saying, what do they need all of this money for?

“I encourage you, please just look at Google if you’re in the construction business or in the aviation business to try and understand what it means to build runways, taxiway links, apron expansion work that we need to do, and of course, to make sure that we put a safe environment together for everything that happens on the air side,” Kuku said.

She said there have been price variations, of course, which is affected by the scope and FX fluctuations, adding that the project was initially being handled by the ministry with support from FAAN. She also said that FAAN will continue to support the project and provide clarity around it.

Read also: Ex NCAA DG gets recognition from European American University

Speaking on infrastructure upgrades across the airports in Nigeria, Kuku said the first thing she did was to block some immediate gaps, which she did with minor rehabilitation works at a lot of the country’s airports. “I’m sure that if you’ve been a traveling passenger over the last 90 days, you will see that the airports are cleaner. They’re friendlier. In terms of the atmosphere, we’ve lit up some of those airports a lot more and it’s more spacious in certain areas.

“That is just the minimum that we can do in terms of interventions, at least, to make sure that while we focus on the large infrastructure projects and, of course, rehabilitating some of the facilities, you’re able to do that. If you fly through the domestic airport in Abuja, you would notice that there’s a lot that has been done.

“If you came into that airport about six months to a year ago, it was dark. It was almost like the Hall of doom. We’ve lit up that airport tremendously. We’ve opened up the space, the seating arrangements, in terms of the facility. What we heard everyone complain about was the conveniences and better access.

“Some of the elevators and the escalators are functional. We have made sure that things like the toilets are also functional and really focusing on a lot of expansion works across the airports,” the FAAN MD explained.

Speaking on unviable airports across the country, Kuku said FAAN has already made investments in infrastructure and what needs to be done is to plug those investments so that there would be improvement in rate of returns.

She said she does not recommend shutting down airports at all.

“There are two things. One is the economics of the airports, which is viability, and secondly, is the social impact that the airport brings into driving the economy. Our commercial and business development team, as well as myself, with the guidance of the Minister of Aviation, have worked very closely with some of the state government in terms of what they can do.

“One is largely around cargo. I think cargo is a sweet spot for us in the market. States like Kano, Jos, Ogun state, are looking to drive cargo effectively. But it’s not just about building the infrastructure or investing more in the infrastructure on ground. It’s really about making sure that there’s a feeder system that starts all the way from the bottom of the value chain to drive cargo.”

Speaking on airport concession, she said a hybrid model is what she and her team have clearly preached for, which is making sure that for the commercial activities, they are able to commercialise some airports.

“The Minister has been working very closely with us at FAAN to make sure that the concession process is thorough. There has been a review. So of course, there has been a review of the last concession process as well. There were some addresses that we put in the paper, which were more of notices a couple of months ago, largely around interest or intent in those airports that we’re looking to concession. There’s some advisory work that is also on-going in terms of project development and the economics.

“Now, when it comes to concessions, it’s one thing to potentially find a private sector partner to work with you on those concessions; but what is more important is to make sure that you sort of have the same goals, you’re able to potentially trash out some of the issues that will potentially arise round what do you do with the people,” Kuku added.