After more than two months of collapse with resultant long hours of waiting in queues by passengers, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is finally reinstalling check-in and screening equipment at the Lagos and Abuja airports.
The Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, are Nigeria’s busiest and most used for local and international flights.
BusinessDay had earlier reported the collapse of the check-in and screening systems at the two airports and the pains passengers and airline operators were going through as a result.
Henrietta Yakubu, general manager, corporate affairs, FAAN, in a statement on Monday, said the more than two months frustration was about changing for the better, as equipment required to addressing the situation have arrived in Nigeria and are being installed.
According to Yakubu, an additional 15 security screening machines have been procured for immediate deployment to the general aviation terminal (GAT) and Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos and are also being installed already.
“The Authority is using this opportunity to appeal to all stakeholders to please bear with us while the installation would last, as all hands are on deck to ensure speedy completion of the project,” she added.
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In the last two months, passengers experienced check-in delays as they waited in long queues before being processed to travel.
Passengers spent over an hour in queues as airlines check-in passengers manually as a result of a system collapse that airport authorities failed to resolve for two months.
BusinessDay’s findings earlier show that the Lagos International Airport has been operating manually because the Societe International Telecommunication Aeronautiques (SITA), which provides Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE), withdrew its services and the company, Arlington -RESA Airport Management Solution, which was supposed to replace SITA, was yet to install its own equipment to migrate airlines to the new system.
As a result, airline staff have been handwriting boarding passes and bag tags as some international airlines had to get an alternate option by using their own system and luggage printers.
Airlines have had to always send messages to their passengers asking them to arrive at the airport for their flight because they were experiencing check-in delays due to local system outages.
