The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria

  • Obaseki flays theft of airport facilities, orders investigation

    The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has condemned the theft of part of the Instrument Landing System (ILS)  being installed at the Benin Airport, and directed the Nigerian Air Force and the Department of State Security  to investigate and arrest the culprits.

    Obaseki gave the directive after inspecting facilities and components that make up the ILS being installed by the state government in collaboration with relevant federal government agencies.

    The installation of the facilities is expected to make room for 24-hour operations at the Benin Airport.

    Before inspecting the facilities, the governor had a closed-door meeting with the Commander, 107 Air Maritime Group, of the Nigerian Airforce, Wing Commander, Fatai Ganiyu, who later accompanied the governor on inspection of the equipment, with officials of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).

    Obaseki directed the Wing Commander and State Director of the State Security Service to immediately launch an investigation into the incident, adding, “I assured Edo people that our Airport will render 24-hour services and we have been working on that with the relevant federal government agencies to see how we can get the necessary equipment in place to allow this happen.”

    “We have been able to secure the ILS and the necessary equipment, we also have an agreement to put runway lights so that planes can be guided to land at night. Work has started but there is little incident as some of the equipment bought last week have been stolen. We have brought in security agencies to investigate and get the culprits arrested and ensure the work proceeds as desired,” Obaseki added.

    He noted that the state government provided bulk of the resources used for the ILS project not minding that the airport is a federal asset, noting, “Our goal is to ensure that before the harmattan season, the Benin Airport will be ready to function as a 24/7 Airport and more importantly, have the landing system to navigate flights even in bad weather.”

    The Instrument Landing System (ILS) is a radio navigation system which provides aircraft with horizontal and vertical guidance before and during landing.

    A source at the airport who does not want his name in print, said some equipment in the Glide Slope, a component of the ILS, which provides the vertical guidance was stolen while facilities at the localiser component were intact.

  • We’ll ensure improved services across MDAs-SERVICOM

    Service Compact (SERVICOM) says it will not relent in ensuring adequate service principles and core values aimed at improving service delivery in the country’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s).

    Mrs Nnenna Akajemeli, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SERVICOM, made the assertion a keynote address presented at the 5th Stakeholders Forum of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on Monday in Port Harcourt.

    Akajemeli, represented by Mrs Stella Benson, a SERVICOM officer, assured Nigerians of SERVICOM’s readiness to pursue values aimed at ensuring world class services across Nigerian MDAs, including the airports.

    She therefore, charged airport staff, especially the Customer Service Department across Nigerian airports to rise up to the challenge of repositioning services inline with world class standard.

    “As foot soldiers of service delivery in your departments, you should therefore, not relent in adopting and implementing service standards, principles and core values that will drive service delivery processes,” she said.

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    Commending the current leadership of the Customer Service Department of FAAN led by Mrs Ebele Okoye, Akajemeli said Okoye’s leadership initiatives had led to a more rewarding staff/customer relationship and improved services.

    In the same vain, Mr Saleh Dunoma, Managing Director, FAAN, represented by the South-South/South-East Regional Manager, Mr Afolabi Ojo, thanked SERVICOM for their initiative and promised to sustain achievements of the customer Service Department.

    He said that the stakeholders forum has created an opportunity for FAAN to evaluate, analyze and improve on services to air travelers as well as other airport users.

    On her part, Okoye, thanked the participants, adding that the forum had availed FAAN the opportunity to know their challenges in terms of service delivery and had helped the it proffer ways for improvements.

    “The aim of this forum is actually to get relevant stakeholders together to chart the way forward and to achieve better service delivery system and the bottom line is that we now have improved services,” she said.

    Okoye promised that the initiative would be sustained as they were poised to ensure world class services across our airports.

  • Edo gets tourism information desks at Benin Airport

    Edo gets tourism information desks at Benin Airport

    The Edo State Government has partnered with Viko Nigeria to open tourism information desks at the Benin Airport to market and promote the state’s tourism sites.

    The government would partner with the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to ensure night landing at the Benin Airport.

    The airport is one of those that operate visual flights in the country.

    Speaking at the opening of the desks at both the Arrival and Departure Wings of the airport yesterday, Governor Godwin Obaseki stated that the essence of opening the desks is for investors and visitors to know about the tourism potential of the state.

    The governor, who was represented by the Chief of Staff, Chief Taiwo Akerele, explained that the idea behind the project is the commitment to make the state a 24-hour economy.

    He said: “As a state, we want to leverage on our potential to attract local and foreign investments. We are partnering  the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to make night landing possible at the airport to increase influx of passengers coming into the state for business and leisure.”

    On his part, the Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Diaspora Affairs, Hon. Osaze Osemwegie-Ero, said the information desks are a part of the arts and tourism roadmap for the development of the state.

    He stated that the idea was conceived by Obaseki as part of efforts to boost investments and employment opportunities in the state.

  • Kaduna International Airport records 189,734 passengers, 3,274 aircraft movements in 6 weeks

    The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), says a total of 189,734 passengers and 3,273 aircraft movements were processed at the Kaduna International Airport between March 8 and April 17.

    FAAN made this known in its monthly statistical report made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) by its Acting General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Mrs Henrietta Yakubu on Friday in Abuja.

    The report indicated that a total of 175,931 passengers were processed on scheduled domestic flights, comprising 89,655 arrivals and 86,276 departures.

    It also revealed that 1,474 passengers, comprising 472 arrivals and 1,002 departures were processed on non-scheduled domestic flights during the period under review.

    According to the report, the airport also processed 12,329 passengers on scheduled international flights, comprising 5,638 on arrivals and 6,691 on departures.

    On the whole, a total of 3,274 domestic aircraft movements comprising 2,340 scheduled and 736 non-scheduled flights were recorded according to the statistics.

    It also showed that the aircraft movements for scheduled international flights were 122, while non-scheduled flights recorded two aircraft movements during the period.

    According to the report, the airport received 84 cargo flights through courier service.

    Flight operations began at the airport on March 8, following closure of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja for its runway rehabilitation.

    Meanwhile, Ethiopian Airlines was the only international airline that operated in Kaduna during the period.

    The airline processed 11,568 passengers in and out of the airport.

    Out of this figure, according to the Airline’s Traffic and Sales Manager, Mrs Firiehiwot Mekonnen, 6,456 were processed on departures, while 5,112 were on arrivals

     

  • FAAN, Airport car hire operators clash as airport reopens

    FAAN, Airport car hire operators clash as airport reopens

    There was a clash between Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Abuja Airport Car Hire  Association (AACHA) on Wednesday.

    FAAN alleged that five of its workers were injured and one in a coma after they were attacked by members of AACHA.

    The clash also resulted in the destruction of some property belonging to the car hire operators including canopies and some vehicles.

    Commenting on what transpired between both parties, the Legal Adviser of FAAN, Clifford Omozeghian said: “the problem we have is with the car hire people.

    “They took us to court and the court gave the judgement against them. The court gave some specific order that they should be removed from this premise because they are not registered with FAAN.

    “The court empowered the airport manager to act as a bailiff in order that this order be executed. We have tried all possible means when we sought to execute the judgement.

    “These people who are so violent. They came hard on our staffs, they broke some people’s head, some people were rushed to the hospital, we had some persons who fell into a coma.

    “So we had to send a petition to the Inspector-General Police because we were being intimidated and harassed.

    He further said: “The IGP immediately ordered that his men be on the ground to investigate the issue. They were here yesterday, and some persons were arrested and the place evacuated.

    “We had to barricade the main carpark in order to maintain sanity but by this morning, these same persons who have constituted themselves as a menace to the authority came again in full force and forcefully removed the barricade that was placed there.

    “When some of our security men approached them, they lynched some of them, they beat them up seriously, and this is embarrassing to us.

    “You can not force yourself on us, the law is so clear about that. They are not registered with us, the court has said that, but they said they must impose themselves on us. So that is where we are now.

    On the number of FAAN officials affected, he said: “We have about five men beaten this morning, we have one in coma and we have one on admission right now.

    Some of them were arrested on Thursday, we do not know what is happening right now but we expect the policemen to continue their investigations and invite us to come for further briefings.

    Reacting to the allegations raised by FAAN, one of the Board of Trustees of the association, Chief Uche Chinese said FAAN was only trying to intimidate some of its members.

    He denied having any physical confrontation with officials of FAAN.

    According to him: “They came here with personnel of SARS  and you know that they carry arms. It’s only a mad man that will want to fight someone who was carrying arms.

    Also speaking, Mr. Victor Chuba said: “We were here at the car park and they came to us with a team of SARS and they asked for Alhaji Dele, when they chained his legs and hands.

    “They arrested four other people and asked every other persons to remove his or her cars that we are not supposed to be at the airport because they said we are not legitimate concessionaire but we told them we were but we were forcefully removed and they went ahead to destroy our canopies and spoilt some of the cars.

    On what he suspects to be responsible for the clash,  Chuba said: “FAAN wants to impose other companies on our association.

    “We are concessionaire and the space we occupy presently was given to us by FAAN but now they want to intimidate us.

    “The painful thing is that members now carry one turn per week, we find it difficult to fend for our families and now they are trying to impose N2000 daily payment on us.”

    On whether the clash in any way affected the security of passengers, the Chief Security Officer of the airport, Akewusola Adisa said: “The actions did not affect the security of our passengers.

    “The security of our passenger is intact and our men are on ground to ensure that there is law and order. We have registered car hire and they are fully on ground doing their business. Everything is intact, the runway completed.

    “If you look around you will see that there is business as usual. We have come to term with the period we said we were going to use even before the day; you saw that we commenced operations on Today.”