FAAN moves to boost revenue generation

Chukwuemeke Iwelunmo

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has set up a committee to map out plans to boost revenue generation for the agency especially the non-aeronautical sources.

The agency also, said that it is going through some processes that would eventually lead to the approval of its Aviation Security (AVSEC) to bear arms in 2019.

Engr. Saleh Dunoma, the Managing Director, FAAN disclosed these to aviation journalists yesterday in an interview at the agency’s headquarters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos.

Dunoma said that it was high time airport authorities on the continent diversified their revenue generations away from aeronautics to non-aeronautic, stressing that other airport managers across the world had already keyed into this.

He insisted that the committee, which he chaired, consisted of relevant directorates and departments responsible for revenue generation for FAAN and would come out with a roadmap to enhance revenues for the agency.

He declared that FAAN as an agency could not be left behind in the development of its airport infrastructure, stressing that the only way to achieve this was for it to diversify its revenue generation and tap into the myriad of opportunities in the system.

He explained further that apart from Nigeria, other airport authorities across the continent were also deliberating on how to increase their non-aeronautical revenue services, which he said formed the theme of this year’s Airports Council International (ACI) held in Egypt.

He said: “What we intend to do is to diversify our revenue sources. In Africa, we have not tapped into non-aeronautical sources and we are encouraging African airports to look at non-aeronautical revenue sources of revenue because aeronautical sources of revenues have limitations; they are highly dependent on flight operations.

“The non-aeronautical revenues are being developed so much that they can be in pari-passu with the aeronautical sources of revenues. This is what we want African airports to develop. Some papers were presented to guide African airports to develop that area.

“As a matter of fact, I just finished a meeting with my team. I set up a team on revenue generation and this team is chaired by me.

It is very sensitive to the survival of African airports especially FAAN. We started the meeting today (yesterday) and we will continue to meet every week until we get to where we want to be.

“We have not come up with a target yet, but the committee will come up with that. There are lots of departments involved, including engineering and commercial.

By the time we develop some projects, we will have revenue targets that we want to achieve. This will be done by the committee.”

He explained further that before the end of the year, AVSEC personnel would have been approved to bear arms in order to increase their surveillance of the sector.

“It is not everybody that will bear arms. This, we must apply. We cannot train ourselves. We have to be trained by those that have been long in the system; the State Security Service and the Nigeria police.

Also, we want to make sure that we get certification from the office of the National Security Adviser. We have to go through these processes.

As soon as we are through with all these, they can then be allowed to carry arms. We intend to do this before the end of the year”, he explained.