FAAN Completes Lagos Airport Clean-Up

The Federal Airport Authority (FAAN) has announced total completion of its airport evacuation exercise in a bid to ride the nation’s prime airport, Murtala Mohammed Airport (MMA), Lagos of all abandoned and disused aircrafts.

Yakubu Dati, general manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, said in Lagos that most of the abandoned aircraft were dismantled and sold as scraps to the public, while others were bought by individuals for business interests.

He however, denied insinuations that N120 million was generated from the sale of the abandoned aircraft at the airport. He explained that the destruction and evacuation of no fewer than 65 airplanes abandoned by domestic airlines was taking place in eight other airports across the country.

“We have completed that of Lagos airport; we are still working at Benin, Kano, Port Harcourt and some other few airports. Once we are done with all the airports in the country, we shall let the public know. We cannot give a particular figure of the remaining aircraft in each airport, but we are almost done” said Dati.

The FAAN spokesman stated that some of the abandoned aircraft had been at the airport environment for almost 10 years.

“None of them is serviceable because most of their owners have closed shop; unfortunately, such owners don’t want to evacuate them for reasons best known to them. Today, we have removed everything; our air side is free,” said Dati emphatically.

Some of the abandoned aircraft belong to domestic operators like Bellview, Space World, Capital Airlines, IRS, EAS, Dasab and Fresh Airlines. Aircraft models range from Fokker 28, Embraer 100 to Boeing 727 and 737.

He also stated that the authority had begun removal of unauthorised billboards placed by a leading concessionaire at the Lagos airport.

“The removal of the billboards was on the heels of violation by the concessionaire not to place any billboard or advertisement on a property it no longer has control over. Such act of violation to place their advertisements on a property it no longer has legal status over, is enough demonstration that the firm is treading on the path of illegality,'' Dati enthused.

The contentious site was leased to the private developer to build a four-star hotel adjacent to the new domestic terminal two at the Lagos airport. But Dati said that has not been done and the abandoned project not only pose an eyesore to airport users, but is of great security concern.