•Vows to name, shame erring airlines over flight delays, cancellations
By Chinelo Obogo, talktonelo@yahoo.com
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has revealed that the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), has spent close to N1billion on Duty Tour Allowance and flight tickets in one year.
He stated this in apparent justification of his decision to relocate the top management of FAAN from Abuja to Lagos to end the profligacy and save funds that could be diverted to other vital areas.
The Minister, while reacting to the interview he granted on Wednesday where said FAAN had spent N500 million on air tickets shuttling its officials between Lagos and Abuja almost on a daily basis, he said on his X handle on Thursday that he had not been briefed on the accurate amount spent so far, revealing that it was actually close to one billion naira and not the earlier figure he quoted.
“When I did my TV interview yesterday, I had not been briefed as to the amount FAAN spent last year alone on DTA (Duty Tour Allowance) for the principal officers who travelled back and forth from Lagos to Abuja almost on a daily basis. The amount came up to N493, 678,620.37. This is aside from the air tickets which I mentioned that amounted to N451, 058,950.09. So, in total, because of insistence on naming Abuja as the headquarters of FAAN (when there are no offices in Abuja to accommodate all the principal officers) FAAN spent close to N1 billion in one year,” he said.
In a recent interview he granted, the Minister spoke on a range of issues confronting the aviation sector. On what the Federal Government was doing about the frequent cases of flight delays and cancellations, he revealed that he has had discussions with insurance companies and domestic airlines on how passengers who are affected by flight delays and cancellations would be compensated. “We’ve engaged a couple of insurance companies to insure passengers and their flight tickets. They will be present at every airport in the country and will swing into action whenever there is a flight delay or cancellation to ensure passengers are not stranded. On a weekly basis, we will start publishing the list of flights that were delayed or cancelled and the reasons and actions taken. We will start publishing them next week. We will name and shame erring airlines,” he said.
On lack of adequate facilities at the airports, the minister said that N40 billion has been proposed in the budget to procure sophisticated technical equipment for all the airports in Nigeria. He added that the ‘Safe Tower Project’ is ongoing to upgrade the towers of the five major international airports. He revealed that he did not meet any master plan on ground for the development of the airports and that he has intimated President Bola Tinubu on the need to start with master plans for the major airports.
“We have decided to take some preemptive steps to upgrade our equipment. The last time we upgraded was under former President Olusegun Obasanjo where there was a lot of procurement of navigational equipment but after that, technology has improved and there is a need to upgrade to meet with modern standards. Some have been done and some are being done. We are looking at upgrading the total radial coverage of Nigeria. I called all the critical stakeholders to find out what we urgently need and we all looked at it and in November, I wrote to the President for urgent intervention. He immediately approved and directed the Ministry of Finance to see how it can quickly raise N40 billion to procure very critical equipment and they are in the process of doing that right now. They are already processing it.
“The moment I came into office, the first thing I asked was, where are the master plans for our airports? How can you build infrastructure without a plan? I did not meet any master plan on ground in the entire Nigeria and I asked what they have been doing. I told myself that we need to start with master plans for our five major international airports.
“I made a presentation to the National Assembly and they have provided funds for the master plan in the 2024 budget. We are going round the world and talking to world class design experts. We don’t have a single airport in Nigeria that is a hub. All we have are runways and terminal buildings which is the old concept of an airport. We are planning to turn the five airports into hubs, that is why we are looking for concessionaires all over the world who will do proper hubs for us,” he said.