Almost two weeks after a mangled corpse was found on Runway 18R of the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said it has begun the replacement and repair of aged equipment used to carry out its daily operations at airports across the country.
During an interactive session where this development was disclosed, the Managing Director, FAAN, Capt. Rabiu Yadudu noted that some of the equipment such as the baggage landing, runway, and the central cooling system among others were more than 40 years old and above.
While FAAN had inaugurated an ad hoc committee in 2021 because it saw that most of the facilities were aged, Yadudu explained that these equipment were supposed to be replaced every 15 years, but some had gone 25 to 30 years.
“The major repair is of aging equipment and components. I gave you an example in Lagos; abandoned runway and airfield lighting. Also, the key elements at the MMA (Murtala Muhammed Airport) and any other airports that we did not replace, but now, we are replacing them.
“Some were last replaced in either 1980 or 1985. Now, we are replacing them. It is only the air-conditioning system that we have not yet procured, but we are processing it and the airfield lighting.
“However, all other basic ones such as disabled aircraft, baggage handling and other basic ones that the people see every day, we have started with them. The avio bridges, we have started with them and that is in terms of infrastructure.
“So, we have a committee that is working and they gave us the state-of-the-art equipment for all the airports so that we can make use of it, work with the ministry and use it to know their status so that we can plan.
“This year, we will work in Akure, Borno, Sokoto and next year, we will work in Port Harcourt, Benin and Yola. We don’t have all the money to fix all, but we will do the entire airports gradually,” he said.
Yadudu, while responding on plans to start 24-hour operations of the airports, said, “FAAN cannot operate an airport that it cannot break even, because it is already challenged, it can only operate 24 hours airport if it knows that the business can be sustainable.”
