The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has called on airline operators to remove all aircraft currently not operational at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) to make space for other operating aircraft.
This plea is coming at a time the authority has consistently complained over lack of parking space at the airport, as passenger traffic and aircraft movement continue to increase.
Speaking at a press conference Tuesday at MMIA, Shina Aba, regional manager, FAAN, and terminal manager, MMIA Ikeja, Lagos, said Lagos airport was built 40 years ago and since then, there had been no major structural change at the airport amid rapid growth in passenger and aircraft movement.
Aba said the airport now had space and capacity constraint, making it almost impossible to continue accommodating unserviceable aircraft and ‘aircraft on ground’ (serviceable but are currently not operating).
“Currently, there are 32 international airlines operating in MMIA, while eight passenger and cargo aircraft operate from the General Aviation Terminal (GAT). There is only one airside and we use the same manual.
“From MMIA alone, there are currently 272 aircraft movement (departure and arrival) every day, as against eight international flights that operated at the airport in 1979, when the airport commenced operations. Also in 1979, MMIA operated just two cargo flights a week but today the airport processes 30 cargo flights in one week,” she explained.
Operators have refused to take out their aircraft-on-ground and unserviceable aircraft because they do not pay for parking space, and FAAN may not be able to remove these airplanes by themselves without the approval of the operators, she said.
FAAN has consistently appealed to the operators to move these aircraft to airports that have less traffic such as Port Harcourt, Ilorin and Akure airports, among others, at no cost for parking.
While some operators are in talks with FAAN to move the aircraft out, some other operators have raised fears concerning the security of their aircraft when they are moved outside the airport, she said.
She said while FAAN was making plans to expand MMIA airport, airline operators would be required to comply with the rules and make parking space available for operational aircraft.
“We will need to review our bye-laws to ensure operators don’t park aircraft endlessly. We are working on the expansion of the apron. An expansion work was going on at the cargo section of the airport but the contractors stopped work at some point.
“When we finish expanding the airport, we will be able to accommodate additional eight aircraft at MMIA, including wide and medium bodied aircraft,” she disclosed.
FAAN unofficially complained to journalists that Air Peace had earlier brought Boeing 777 and parked them at the airport, but Chris Iwarah, head of communication of Air Peace, said the agency was aware that the aircraft were being prepared for international operations and were going through procedures with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) before they would be inducted as part of Air Peace fleet for international service.
