We’re Resolving Service Disruption at Lagos Airport – FAAN MD, Yadudu

There have been disruptions to international flights at the Murtala Mohammed Airport International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, over the breakdown of the check-in occasioned by the expiration of the contract of Societe International Telecommunication Aeronautiques (SITA) which has been handling the Common Use of Terminal Equipment (CUTE) for the past 10 years. In this interview, the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Captain Rabiu Hamisu Yadudu, spoke about how this is being resolved.

Passengers have been experiencing delays at the Lagos airport, what is the issue?

FAAN plans to upgrade and renew the existing system which is provided by SITA which has been in operation for over 10 years. It came up for renewal, SITA did not participate creditably in line with the Nigerian procurement process; and they are fully aware. As a result of that, RESA of France which also participated emerged as the only winner of that procurement process.

It was done transparently, transmitted to the government and they (RESA) got the new contract. We worked with another company called ICTS to provide a stop-gap measure, that during the transition, ICTS would provide a common user self-service kiosk. This system was provided 12 months ago in Nigeria.

We worked with SITA to ensure that during the transition, we sought their cooperation to ensure that there was no service disruption. Towards the end of it, we requested for a six-month extension that would make it easy for SITA to continue operations until the time RESA was coming in. When we sent the agreement, SITA suddenly said they would only sign three months. They put up so many tough conditions. Read More

Aviation Stakeholders Worried As Ground Handling Rate Drops To $400

Players in the Nigerian aviation industry have raised the alarm due to the massive drop of ground handling charges from $1,139 to only $400 on a Boeing 737 aircraft (narrow body airplane) or its equivalent.

This is as investigation by Daily Independent revealed that ground handling rates in Nigeria remained the lowest in Africa.

A source close to one of the foreign airlines flying into Ni­geria, confided in Daily Inde­pendent that the three ground handling companies, Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) Plc, Nigerian Avia­tion Handling Company (NAH­CO) Plc, and AHS Aviation Handling Services, charge the lowest on the continent, despite having better ground support equipment (GSE) than most of their counterparts in Africa.

nvestigation also indicated that ground handling charges in Guinea, Senegal, Cameroon, Sierra Leone and Ghana for narrow body and wide body air­craft are way ahead of Nigeria.

The narrow body aircraft include B737, Airbus A320, ER 135 and ATR aircraft, while the wide body aircraft are catego­rised as B767, A330, B777, B747 and A380 aircraft.

In Guinea, foreign airlines are charged $1,673 (narrow body); $4,715 (wide body), Sen­egal; $2,250 and $5,259, Camer­oon; $1,400 and $4,500, Sierra Leone; $2,250 and $5,250, and Ghana with $1,500 and $4,150 for passenger flight.

Cargo flight attracts $2,300, $1,750, $2,300, and $2,500 in Sen­egal, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Ghana, respectively, for narrow body aircraft, while for wide body aircraft, the ground han­dling in those countries charge between $4,450 and $5,250 per flight.

Besides, further checks revealed that while the above named countries charge the air­lines appropriate rates, a nar­row body aircraft attracts about $1,000 ground handling charge in Nigeria, while a wide body aircraft goes as low as $3,000 for passenger flight. Read More

COVID-19’s Delta+ Variant Delays UAE and Global Airlines’ ‘Summer of Hope’

More delays pile up for global travel industry over extensions to India flight cuts

Dubai: The ‘summer of hope’ for UAE and other global airlines is yet to take-off, with the ‘Delta plus’ variant of the COVID-19 bringing about further delays. The variant, which has become more apparent in India’s latest COVID-19 infections, has sparked concerns of a third wave – and forcing governments everywhere to bring back stringent measures.

“People from high variant locations, including India and the UK, are going to struggle to be allowed into other countries while there are uneven rates of vaccination around the world,” said Andrew Charlton, an aviation analyst. “We are living in a global Petri dish – and we need to be patient.”

That’s not it, UAE’s recently established travel corridors – which allow passengers to fly quarantine free – could be affected as well. The Delta plus variant “will totally undermine the hastily built travel corridors and things will remain less than ideal,” said Charlton.

Emirates and Etihad have extended their ban on flights from a handful of countries, including India. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has suspended flights from four countries, including the UAE, due to COVID-19 concerns. This is bad news for UAE’s airlines who were looking to bring back almost 2019-level air connectivity levels by the end of this year. Read More

Source: Daily Trust, Daily Independent, Gulf News