FAAN MD defends GAT handover

Clement Idoko, Abuja

Richard Aisuebeogun, MD, FAANTHE Managing Director of Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Richard Aisuebeogun, has said that concession of the General Aviation Terminal of Murtala Mohammed Local Airport, Lagos by the Federal Government to Bi-Courtney is in the interest of the country.

Aisuebeogun, speaking in Abuja during the Nigerian Aviation Expo Conference (NIGAV) 2009, stressed that the concession was in the best interest of the country and not meant to share the national assets among the few rich as alleged by those opposed to the programme.

Speaking through the Acting Director in charge of Operation in FAAN, Mr. Tope Tubi, the FAAN boss disclosed that the manner in which the airport terminal was being managed was not good enough, adding that the concession was aimed at improving on the facilities at the airport in an efforts to ensure maximum safety standards.

He said: “Concession is the practice worldwide. For us to start now means we are starting late. Ghana started about 10 years ago. Airports in the world have either been commercialised or privatised. It is not meant to share our national assets among the few rich people as it is being erroneously believed.

“The government is not about to replace public monopoly with private monopoly. We should be talking about how monopoly can work and not whether the government should go ahead with the concession plan,” he stated.

Meanwhile, as part of the highlight of the event, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of AVSATEL Communications Limited, Mr. Georg Eder, an Austrian pilot, was rewarded with the Most Outstanding Aviation Training Aid Project of the year 2009 by the NIGAV for his company’s contribution to aviation safety in Nigeria.

Eder, whose company got the contract to replace obsolete equipment in the four international airports in the country, said he was proud for having supported the invisible hands in the aviation sector in the country by installing state-of-the-art, fully integrated and synchronised voice switching, communication, meteorological equipment, emergency equipment in the nation´s major points of entry.

It will be recalled that obsolete equipment in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt International airports were replaced in 2007.

He said: “We have installed the first Low Level Windshear Alert System on the entire African continent. This outstanding and important equipment has been in reliable operation for more than a year in Abuja now – but still awaits official commissioning.

Eder disclosed at the occasion that the Low Level Windshear Alert System was the main cause of the ADC and Sosoliso air crash in Abuja and Port-Harcourt respectively in 1996.

He added: “We have a new Control Tower building in Kano which is presently under construction. Our electronic equipment is already on the ground in Kano. We are just awaiting the go-ahead to start installations after completion of the construction works of the building.

“Coming into Nigeria does not merely involve words, expectations and hiking for contracts – for Avsatel and myself, working in Nigeria means investment and accepting responsibility – for the reliable functioning of equipment delivered, for maintenance, training and transfer of technology,” Eder said.