Concerns over airports proliferation as expert canvasses hub development

By Sade Williams/Business a.m.

Concerns have been raised over plans across the country, especially by state governments, to build airports and proliferate the aviation space with facilities that might not be financially sustainable.

Instead, a call has gone out for the development of aviation hubs in the country.

Gabriel Olowo, president, Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI), is querying the rush for establishment of more airports by state governments, saying that most of the existing aerodromes are not commercially viable.

Olowo is advising the authorities concerned to put their efforts towards developing HUBS at the major airports in the country, especially at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos with so many Terminals in order to attract more traffic and airlines.

Olowo observed that most of the airports, apart from the ones in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, are not commercially viable.

According to him, facilities that would make the existing airports a hub are still lacking in most of the country’s airports and mentioned the absence of concourse light train network to connect Domestic Terminals and International Terminals and vice versa both in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano.

Installing modern technology facilities like self- checking service kiosks, are also lacking.

“There exists too many toll gate check-points rather than the many agencies to share data and file a single watch-list with security. This is a major disincentive for hub development. Passenger facilitation is made more cumbersome rather than the global effort at making it seamless,” Olowo said.

For cargo airports, Olowo lamented that the intra and inter state road linkages to the airports are in deplorable states and wondered how such airports would be useful to farmers and other users to deliver their products.

Olowo emphasized that airports are not only expensive to build because of the many facility linkages but also expensive to maintain.

He submitted that there must be a short and long term enforceable plan by succeeding governments before embarking on airport development if government were to be a continuum. One governor quitting and another abandoning the project such as revealed during the launch of Ogun State agro airport runway is lamentable.

He said: “For Lagos Airport, for instance, to become a hub, first class and world-class airport transfer connection facility is necessary. Concourse light trains should be built to connect the terminals rather than allowing Transit and or Transfer passengers to check out of the customs, burst into the precarious mammoth crowd in rain and shine with their baggage in order to pick a taxi to the next connecting terminal. This is very absurd and a shame at MMA in 45 years of its existence since 1978. Transit/Transfer passengers dread Lagos Airport especially in the evenings.

“Regarding cargo airports, the roads to take the products to the airports are either not available or in bad shape with high propensity for trucks to tumble and perishable goods destroyed. Explosive goods will also explode. Day old chicken and eggs were massively destroyed.

“States should put their heads together for the establishment of safe, functional and durable interstate road linkages first, rather than conceiving the idea of a new agro aerodrome. The airport in the western region of Ibadan and others like that are still operating below capacity. The geographical neighbouring states should cooperate on road and rail linkages and upgrade the airport to a world class standard for the service of Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, etc rather than individual state effort at establishing their own airport. It’s bad economics if airports are to deliver economies of scale.

“Airport maintenance is not cheap and must be done routinely. All we need is to make an effort at turning the existing ones (after proper enhancement) into hubs. There must be deliberate effort to develop hubs and not by building non functional airport silos all over the states, overstretching the already stressed treasury,” Olowo added.

On the plan by Abia and Edo State governments to build additional airports in their states, Olowo described it as good politics but bad economics.

“What is the status of once glorious Benin Airport? Why not revisit the old ruins?” He asked.

He wondered if the state governments had short term and long term development plans for their states, stressing that each state should necessarily have a 5-10 year development plan for their states, which must be strictly honoured by subsequent leadership.

“Government should prioritise the needs of the people ranging from basics of life like food, shelter, heath, education, etc. Airport construction goes beyond acquiring hectares of land without perimeter fencing, compromising safety of operations, ab initio, constructing substandard runways that will be washed away in one or two raining seasons. It is a highly capital intensive project that should be embarked upon after a robust bankable projection. No thanks to the many abandoned airport projects by the states that are yet begging for funding, a case study of the State of Osun.

“An airline during one of the ART breakfast meetings, revealed that it had to install a transformer at an export in order to supply power for airport lighting facilities so as to deliver night flight operations to that airport. The transformer was even said to be burgled after sometime by miscreants. This is expectedly a service that should be provided by the airport company but could not due to lack of funds,” said Olowo in lamentation.