FAAN Will End Like Nigerian Airways If We Don’t Cancel Airport Concession – Uriesi The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Airport Authority (FAAN), George Uriesi on Tuesday said thegovernment hadto call off some airport concession agreements because such deals were not mutually beneficial. Mr Uriesi, who was a guest on Channels Television’s programme, Business Morning, said since he took over the management of FAAN, the agency has been working to ensure that what happens in Nigerian airports meet the global standard. He said, “What we’ve been witnessing in the last couple of years is an attempt in FAAN to correct some anomalies that existed for the last few years and bring us back into situation of normalcy. Having transactions with businesspartners reflecting what transpire in the airport businesses globally. “Mutually beneficial to both the airport as well as the concessionaires because the premise behind concessioning in the airport business is that the airport is a platform where more than 300 different businesses can happen at the same time and the airport operator is not an expert in all these areas.” He said under concessioning, the airport operator allows retailers and other businesses to operate with the airport in a way that will guarantee profit for both the airport management and the business owners. “The premise has never been for you to come and attach an umbilical cord to my revenue streams and take money away from me. That’s not how the airport business model works,” he said. Mr Uriesi said most of the airport concession agreements were but on this wrong premise and that when he came into office, he invited the concessionaires for renegotiation but they refused. He said, “contrary to some of the misinformation out there, the cancelation of any of our concession agreements that were signed previously in FAAN didn’t just come about on one day. We approach every single one of these concessionaires and we said to them this agreement you have with FAAN is unsustainable, it is a breach of proper businessprinciples; it favours you to the disadvantage of us. “Besides that, we catalogued lots of breaches and we said let’s renegotiate and bring this agreement to the position of equity for both yourselves and FAAN. And you know, as masters of the universe would behave, they tellyou ‘no, we’re not going to do that. Is this not FAAN’s signature? As far as I have this signature, I’m not going to discuss anything with you.’” Nigerians are concerned about the frequency of face-offs between FAAN and its concessionaires. The agency and Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited have been at loggerheads over the ownership of the remodelled General Aviation Terminal (GAT) at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja. There have also been issues between the duo over the termination of two leases granted Bi-Courtney at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja for the developmentand management of a four-star hotel and conference centre, respectively. The case is in court. A fortnight ago, the two parties were involved in a spat over advertisement billboards placed on the hotel project at the Murtala MuhammedAirport (MMA2) as FAAN claimed that Bi-Courtney had no right to do that while the company claimed that the Federal High Court, Lagos, said it had right to do so. Similarly, FAAN and Maevis Nigeria have beenat each other’s throats. The company had a concessionary agreement with FAAN for the supply of Airport Operations Management System (AOMS) to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, Mallam Aminu Kano Airport and the Port Harcourt Airport. The contract was to last for 10 years with the possibility of renewal every five years. But five years into the agreement, FAAN revoked the contract claiming that the company’s incompetence had resulted in its loss of N17 billion in five years and replaced it with SocieteInternational Telecommunication Aeronautiques (SITA), an international communications outfit with specialisation in the provision of data information and airport operations management systems for both airlines and airports. Maevis challenged the action of FAAN in court with the court invalidating SITA’s contract with FAAN and asking the company to pay Maevis N5 billion. The FAAN boss said the agency had to cancel the concession agreement in order to get the agency back on a normal platform like every other airport operators. “If FAAN keeps fetching water with a basket instead of a bucket, FAAN is going to go out of existence like Nigerian Airways very soon,” MrUriesi said
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 01:43:17 +0000
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