The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), says it has fulfilled all necessary requirements for the certification of the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano and Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, in the next few months.
Henrietta Yakubu, General Manager, Corporate Affairs, FAAN, said this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.
Ms Yakubu said this followed the successful certification of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja in 2017.
She said “Sometime late last year, a team from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) visited Nigeria to conduct an airport audit.” It is from that audit that we now have a check list of open items which we will now try to close up.
“After we have closed all the open items, then ICAO will give us the go ahead for the certification of the airports; but I can assure you that we are still on course.
“Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport will soon be certified. Not too long after that, we will certify Port Harcourt. When the audit team came on that inspection, they went to Port Harcourt and went to Kano.
“So, I can assure you that it will be not too long from now.
“The FAAN Managing Director, Mr Saleh Dunoma, promised that during his tenure, he was going to deliver at least all the international airports; and he has already delivered Lagos and Abuja.”
According to her, the current drive towards the certification of Nigerian airports is very significant not only as a requirement by ICAO and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations, but even more importantly as one of the critical safety targets of the Abuja ministerial declaration.
On the completion of the new international terminal buildings, Mr Yakubu disclosed that Kano International Airport Terminal would be inaugurated within the next two months as work had already reached an advanced stage.
She, however, explained that the new terminal building of the Lagos International Airport was delayed because the project had to be sited in another area from the initial design.
“Within the next two months, Kano airport will be inaugurated and when we are done with that, we will now move on to MMIA, Lagos.
“Where the Lagos terminal is sited now was not the original place and now; there has to be connectivity between the new terminal and the old existing terminal.
“Also, a lot of structures will have to move for runway to be connected. Those are the issues we are grappling with right now,” Ms Yakubu said.
She lauded the achievements of FAAN under the leadership of Dunoma and the Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika.
“FAAN has performed very well under this administration. In the course of these four years, two airports were certified.
“We also received an award for safety for Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and also for the rehabilitation of the airport runway.
“Good things happened to us under this administration. We were able to deal with issues of touting and pilfering on our airports with the installation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) monitors.
“The aviation minister and MD FAAN are not resting on their oars. They want us to improve on our facilities to ensure the safety and security of passengers and goods in our airports,” she said.
(NAN)
