Yemisi Izuora.
The automated carpark at the General Aviation Terminal of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport has increased revenue of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN by 68 per cent.
Managing director of the agency Saleh Dunoma who revealed this stated that African airports must position for increased passenger volume, particularly business travellers and tourists, stressing that last year, the continent saw a nine per cent increase in tourism, the highest increase in any region.
Speaking on the upcoming 59th ACI-Africa Board and Committees Meetings & Regional Conference and Exhibition, stated the event is holding just after 23 African countries signed the Single African Air Travel Market (SAATM) last January in Addis Ababa.
He said that SAATM has the potential to transform/revolutionise aviation business on the continent.
“The country will play host to the world from April 14-19, 2018 the trickled down effect of boosting tourism and enabling foreigners experience Nigeria, its beautiful people, arts and craft”. he said.
It would be recalled that as a result of the enormous benefits liberalisation would bring to the continent, in 2015, the Assembly of Head of States and Government adopted the Declaration (Doc. Assembly/ AU/Decl.1 (XXIV)) on the Establishment of a Single African Air Transport Market and also issued a commitment (Assembly / AUC/Commitment/XXIV), to the immediate implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decisions towards the establishment of a single African air transport market by 2017.
Eleven African Member States championed the Declaration by signing the Solemn Commitment to actualise the Decision creating the single market. These Member States were constituted as a working group at Ministerial level (Ministerial Working Group) with responsibility to follow-up the implementation of the single market and spearhead the advocacy campaign to urge more Member States to join the single market.
While open skies pledges – 1988 Yamoussoukro Declaration and 1999 Yamoussoukro Decision – are being signed by most African countries, implementation has been unhurried and restricted. Protectionist policies favouring national airlines remain abundant. This is unhelpful.
The FAAN chief stated that according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), an open skies agreement among Africa’s 12 biggest economies could see passenger traffic soar by 81 per cent to about 11m.
“It could generate 155,000 new jobs, adding $1.3 billion to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It’s estimates it could provide 17,400 jobs in Nigeria and contribute $128m to our GDP”.
“SAATM is an indication that change is in the air – less than 20 per cent of revenues African airports generate is commercial. African airports must transform to embrace this change”.
Speaking on the ACI summit, Dunoma said FAAN has made a lot of strides since being part of that league and serving in the capacity as the ACI Africa President has ensured that Nigeria is in the limelight and has given the country an advantage in decision making as it relates to aviation matters in Africa and the world.
On achievements through the ACI Dunoma said, “Over the years, ACI Africa had focused on safety as a priority leading to the initiation of the world wide acknowledged Airport Excellence (APEX) in safety programme. This has recorded great achievements as there as has been a drastic decrease in the number of incidents and accidents in Africa.”
He stressed that through ACI assistance; Nigeria has gone through successful certification of both Lagos and Abuja Airports and has currently commenced APEX in safety programme of Port Harcourt, Kano, Enugu and Kaduna airports.
He said, ”In Nigeria, ACI has been of tremendous assistance in the certification process of the Lagos and Abuja airports through the APEX in safety programme which helped us identify safety gaps in our aerodromes.
“In recognition of the role played by ACI and in FAAN’s bid to ensure safety in our airports, we have commenced the APEX in safety programme in other of our international airports namely Port Harcourt, Kano, Enugu and Kaduna airports. ”