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Stories by Louis Ibah
Ranked as the 5th worst airport in the world for 2017, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos continues to remain a source of embarrassment to Nigeria, especially given its statue as the country’s prime airport.
In the survey conducted by ‘Sleeping in Airports’, respondents (comprising mostly international travelers who have passed through multitudes of airports during the year under review) described the Lagos international airport as enveloped in chaos and offering travelers who pass through it little or no source of comfort.
Some of the shortcomings listed by respondents in the survey include filthy exterior environment, filthy toilets, archaic check-in procedures, limited seating, sporadic air-conditioning, touting, lousy customer service and corrupt officials.
“Corruption happens to be the number one traveller complain about the Lagos airport,” respondents said.
“Every official ask you for money. You are not likely to enjoy your time here,” they added. Sleeping in Airports, whose yearly airports survey is acknowledged globally as being valid, noted that its survey on Lagos airport had taken note of the various investments made by the Nigerian government to improve the state of infrastructure at the Lagos airport in 2017. Yet the rot still persists.
Pick up zone
However, while corruption among security and airport officials, its filthy ambience, poor air-conditioning, cumbersome check-in procedures may have remained MMIA’s major sore-points over the past years, passengers who passed through it during the 2017/18 yuletide have added another flaw- the absence of a pick-up point within the airport terminal.
And it all started in December 2017, when the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) that operates the airport prohibited vehicles picking up passengers anywhere within the arrival section of the airport. FAAN explained that the decision was to aid the flow of traffic in and out of the airport.
Cars can only drop off passengers but cannot pick them up from the airport. Instaed, passengers are directed to ask vehicles coming to pick them up to pay and park at either of the two car parks located some miles outside the airport terminal. The minimum cost for parking a car at the carparks is N500 per hour. Spending extra hours attract additional cost of N100. One of the car parks is sited besides the MMIA Catholic Church and has commercial taxis stationed to pick-up and drop off passengers, while the other, is a new multi-storey car park with a capacity for about 1,300 cars constructed by Seymour Aviation Limited.
Shuttle buses
Under the new arrangement, FAAN made provisions for shuttle buses to convey passengers to the car parks. But the shuttle buses are grossly insufficient and cannot carter for the number of passengers making use of the MMIA, especially during peak periods. Sometimes, passengers have to wait for more than an hour as just one bus can only be available to pick them up. And where the wait takes longer than passenger’s hour, trekking to the car parks become the next option.
Car parks, revenue points
Although FAAN has explained that the new arrangement was to ease traffic at the MMIA, there are however widespread allegations that the idea was to allow the owners of the car parks, which are built and operated under concession agreements to recoup their investments.
“FAAN has deliberately banned the picking up of passengers from the international terminal of the Lagos airport so that every car that comes into the airport would have no other option than to use the car parks,” said an airline official who spoke to Daily Sun on the policy.
“It is working; the car parks are new revenue sources for FAAN. Both FAAN and the concessionaires are raking in millions of revenue every month. It doesn’t matter to them the inconveniences borne by travellers. The unfortunate thing is that it doesn’t speak well for an international airport like MMIA,” added the official, a spokesperson for one of the airlines who would not want to be named.
Touts
One ugly sight which could also be frightening to a first-time visitor to the airport is the presence of touts wielding iron rods and chasing after vehicles that attempt to park within the airport arrival points. Dressed in plain clothes and sometimes looking very unkempt, these touts are the enforcers of the FAAN no-pick up policy at the MMIA. And there is nothing civil about the methods they deploy to achieve their mandate. From verbal abuses on drivers, to threats to destroy the car or towing the car away where huge fines are imposed on defaulters, to physically dragging passengers to prevent them boarding the cars, these touts certainly constitute an eye sore to visitors to the airport. In fact, they represent a national disgrace.
complaints galore
The major snag however is that passengers have to trek – sometimes with loads of luggage – from the arrival lounge to these car parks located away from the airport terminals. And taxi drivers, friends and families who come to pick-up passengers would rather they be allowed to drive in pick up their passengers and drive off. It’s the trend they are used to, it is what is obtainable in airports all over the world.
“It is an option that is enjoyed all over the world; if you get your timing right and you arrive early, you are always given the option to drive in and pick up arriving passengers and head out of the airport,” said Samson Enema, a traveler who was recently prevented from entering a taxi that came to pick him at the airport terminal.
“I have traveled across airports in the world; in Africa, Europe, America and Asia, and I have never experienced anything like this where it is compulsory to patronize a car park,” Enema added.
Another passenger, Abel Udofa told Daily Sun how arriving the MMIA from Dubai, he was told that the taxi he had called to pick him up could not come into the arrival section of the airport.
“To me this is enough to get the Lagos airport ranked among the worst in the world. But I was more stunned where I stood to board the shuttle bus and I saw touts chasing cars about with rods and sticks and trying to prevent them from picking up passengers. It was really an embarrassing sight,” Udofa said.
Another passenger, who simply gave his name as Franka said “I came in with five big bags from Istanbul Turkey and after a journey that lasted over 7 hours, I was made to stand for more than an hour waiting for a shuttle bus. And when it didn’t come, I had to push the trolley with these luggage to the car park. It is like a form of punishment to passengers, and should be abolished” he said.
