Nigerian Airports Missing in Skytrax World Airports Ranking: FAAN Reacts

The mixed reaction elicited by the non-listing of Nigerian airport among the top ten airports in Africa in the 2013 Skytrax World Best Airports ranking is understandable, according to Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

This is because it is clearly at variance with the reality on ground as most of Nigerian airports are currently undergoing massive transformation, in terms of infrastructural development and service delivery.

Dati Yakubu, FAAN’s general manager, Corporate Communication, remarked that there is no well meaning, regular airport user in the country who will not testify that there is visible and undeniable transformation taking place at Nigerian airports today.

He said: “The airport remodelling project, which has been acknowledged by aviation stakeholders and respectable public figures as the most ambitious airport development project of the Federal Government after the Aerodrome Development Programme of the mid 1970s, is surely breathing fresh air into Nigerian airports.

“Keen observers have applauded the concerted and concrete efforts being made by Government to redress the deplorable state of our airports, which has been with us for over 20 years now.

“It is instructive that one of these efforts, aside from creating new policies that makes our airports more customers friendly and commercially viable, is the appointment of Mr. George Uriesi, who has served as the General Manager of Cape Town International Airport, as the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria in 2011.

“Mr. Uriesi was in charge at Cape Town International Airport when airports in South African were undergoing transformation in preparation for the hosting of the 2010 World Cup.  It is this same airport that ranked first in the 2013 Skytrax World Best Airports!

“Mr. Uriesi is already applying his Cape Town experience to Nigerian airports and a visit to the newly commissioned terminals at the Domestic Terminal I (MMA), Lagos, the International Terminal at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, the new General Aviation Terminal at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and the Benin Airport will show that the Cape Town touch is gradually becoming evident in most of the facilities at our airport terminals”.

Yakubu, expressed confidece that with the unflinching support of President Goodluck Jonathan, the infectious commitment of Princess Stella Oduah, minister of Aviation, to the implementation of the Transformation Agenda in the aviation industry and little patience by the Nigerian public, the nation’s airports will begin to compete with those in South African on the top ten list of the Skytrax World Best Airports ranking, sooner than later.