FAAN allays fears of workers’ layoff amidst airports concession plan

The Federal Government has allayed the fears of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) workers of any lay-offs as plans to concession four major international airports in the country get underway.

Aviation minister Hadi Sirika gave the assurance at a virtual meeting with aviation stakeholders in Lagos, on Wednesday, on the concession update of the four airports.

Sirika said instead, more hands would be engaged as most of the airports were under staffed.

The four airports billed for concession are: the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Port Harcourt International Airport and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

According to Sirika, there wouldn’t be any need to sell the country’s assets, but to concession them in a manner that would modernise the airports and have them operated to create more jobs as well as generate more revenue for the country.

“We will not sell the assets that belong to over 200 million Nigerians and the future generation of this country.

“We are not going to sell because those that were sold were lost, so, we in government believe that we should hold those assets for the Nigerian people in trust.

Read also: FAAN warns of planned attacks on nation’s airports

“We must make those assets better to provide the services that are needed. So, we said, rather than sell out rightly, we will concession.

“In other words, we would give it up to someone who would operate them and make them better.

“We will then get more money, the people will enjoy better services, the industry grows and after a certain time, the airports will come back to us,” he said.

The minister further explained that the airport terminal buildings to be concessioned would generate their revenues from non-aeronautical resources, while all other facilities at the airports and existing concessions, outside the airport terminals, would still be managed by FAAN.

He added that the concessionaire would sign service level agreements for runway, taxiway, security and air traffic Management with FAAN and NAMA to ensure that the airport operated efficiently.

The minister also said that the concessionaire would provide the investment required to upgrade the existing terminals, take over the maintenance of new terminals over a period of time, based on the financial assessment of each transaction.

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