Bi-Courtney says upgrade of MMA2 facilities will be completed 2016

Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), operators of Murtala Mohammed Airport Two (MMA2), on Tuesday, said that facility upgrades at the terminal valued at N500 million will be completed by 2016.

Speaking at the commissioning of the newly installed escalator at the terminal, Christophe Pennick, chief executive officer, BASL, said there are 11 phases of the upgrade, adding that seven more phases would still be carried out by the management.

Pennick, however, apologised to the passengers, terminal users, airline operators and even the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority for the inconveniences caused them while the facility was shut down for upgrade.

Other phases commissioned earlier by BASL, according to Pennick, were the automation of the car park, installing of new dual billing system at the cargo section and the expansion of the checked-in counters from 33 to 45 counters.

He said that with the upgrade of the facilities, all its operations would be International Air Transport Association (IATA) complaint, adding that this would make it the first terminal in sub-Saharan Africa to be so compliant.

“With this, we have done a major technical surgery to come out with this change. No pain, no gain. The escalators weigh more than 40 tons and to be able to do this, it was not easy,” he said.

Also commenting, Adebisi Awoniyi, chief operating officer, BASL, said that the management decided to change the escalator in order to re-invigorate the maintenance culture of the terminal, which, she noted, had been lacking in the country.

She insisted that the company would not toy with the maintenance of its facilities despite the myriad of challenges in the industry.

Awoniyi explained that the management went extra miles to engage more people to assist passengers especially the physically challenged people during the reinstallation of the facility and commended the staff for their dedication.

“We cannot afford to mess around with maintenance of our facilities wherever they are. Because of the patriotic culture in us, we have lots of facilities and equipment that were installed by Nigerians, but they come with their own challenges as their maintenances are not the way they should be.”