Airport Concession: Mixed Reactions As Federal Government Picks Preferred Bidders For 3 Airports

Stakeholders have continued to express support and reservation with the planned airport concessioning in the Nigeria major airports.

This followed Federal Ministry of Aviation announcement of the Corporacion America Airports Consortium as the preferred bidder for the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, while ENL Consortium has also been selected as the reserve bidder for NAIA.

Also, the preferred bidder for Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, is TAV/NAHCO/PROJECT PLANET LIMITED(PPL) Consortium and Sifax/Changi Consortium has also been selected as the reserve bidder for MMIA.

The preferred bidder for Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano, is Corporacion America Airports Consortium and there are no reserve bidders for MAKIA as at the time of this announcement.

Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA), Port Harcourt, did not receive any proposals as of the deadline close and as such has not had preferred and reserve bidders attached to it.

The minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika said the decision was reached in line with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (establishment, etc.) Act, 2005 and global best practice.

He also said the Request for Proposals (RFP) phase of the Nigeria Airports Concession Programme (NACP), which came to a close on  September 19, 2022 has seen the emergence of preferred and reserve bidders for three out of four  Airports and Cargo Terminals as approved for concession under the programme.

The  minister of Aviation had recently said that  about 14.29 per cent of the over 8, 100 workers of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) will transfer their services to private sector players who will run airports planned for concession.

He  said the category of workers in FAAN who will be affected by the development include personnel working at the terminal building , which constitute part of infrastructure to be handed over to would be concessionaires.

Speaking on concession, former chairman of AON, Captain Noggie Meggison, said: “Concession could be a solution to the myriads of problems of airport infrastructure, including obsolete facilities, inadequate x-ray machines, inadequate technical personnel and others.”

In In his reaction, chairman/chief executive officer of Air Peace and current vice chairman of AON, Allen Onyema, said: “Concession would help modernise Nigerian airport terminals and would be beneficial to airlines, which expect that state-of-the-art facilities are provided to enhance easy passenger movement.”

Also a group under the aegis of Centre for Transparency and Defence of Human Rights (CTDHR) has dragged the federal government to court “over alleged irregularities in the bid process for the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA.” The CTDHR has Kunle Edun as the executive director.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) had also faulted the proposal of the federal government to concession four major airports in Abuja, Kano, Lagos and Port Harcourt.