FAAN Earns N12bn from Multi-designation of Foreign Airlines

FAAN MD, Richard Aisuedeogun

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has recorded about N12 billion from the multi-designation of foreign airlines to the four major airports in the country. The figure is about 70 per cent of the agency’s revenue.

Although domestic airlines complain that designating foreign airlines to different airports in the country hurt their business, FAAN is counting on foreign airlines’ operations for their revenue.

Inside source told THISDAY that an airline like British Airways, which operates from Abuja and Lagos airports, pay landing and parking fees at the two airports. It was gathered   that  its passengers also pay passenger service charge (PSC) to the agency.

It is the same with Air France that operates from Lagos and Port Harcourt and also Lufthansa which operates from Port Harcourt, Abuja and Lagos.

Many other airlines operate from Kano, Abuja and Lagos, a situation, which according to sources is a welcome development to FAAN as it would want more foreign airlines to operate from Nigeria to boost its revenue.

Reacting to the argument that multi-designation of airlines hurt the domestic air transport market, the source said that domestic airlines have not been proactive, adding that even those that carry out international operations are doing so because there is no national carrier.

The source pointed out that domestic carriers do not want to explore other routes; rather they only operate already established routes like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kano and Calabar.

The source said that the airlines over compete on these routes and therefore make marginal profits, adding that there are other routes that could even offer more profits than the bigger airports.

The source insists that domestic airlines would not complain that foreign airlines are taking away their business if they were proactive in their routes development. He explained that this was because besides the four major airports that the international carriers operate in, there are others that could be highly profitable to the airlines.

“There are less busy routes that could be more profitable. An airline can deploy smaller aircraft from Uyo to Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt to Kano, Port Harcourt to Sokoto, Maiduguri to Yola and so on.”

The source noted that a lot of people go to Lagos to connect flights to their final destinations, like a traveller who wants to go to Uyo from Maiduguri would have to come to Lagos first and then connect Lagos to Uyo flight.

“Many people move from smaller airports to bigger airports but there are not always flights for these airports. One major airport should be developed in every region of the country so that flights could emanate from these airports to other airports in other parts of the country. Some airlines few years ago were good at operating into those smaller airports and bringing passengers to the big airports, but this did not continue.”

The source also said that if domestic passengers’ needs are met in terms of taking them to their destinations instead of travellers going to where they will get their airlines, the domestic operators will have enough passengers and not grumble about the operations of foreign airlines.