‘2018 ACI conference will focus on making African airports commercially viable’
Saleh Dunoma is the managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). He is also currently serving as the President of the ACI Africa Regional Board. Nigeria will host this year’s 59th Airport Council International (ACI-Africa) conference, where over 300 delegates and participants from all over Africa will converge in Lagos for the conference. In this interview with Ifeoma Okeke, Dunoma speaks about preparations for the conference and the benefits to participants. Excerpts:
What are the major issues that will be discussed at the conference?
The theme is ‘Business transformation for sustainable development of African airports.’ We want to look at how we can make our airports commercially viable in order to sustain our operations. Before this time, you will recall that most African airports were developed by government and they are not commercially viable. Even in Nigeria, until recently, we collect subvention from government and we run these airports but from the evolution of airport management and what is happening all over the world, airports are self-funded.
ACI is looking at how to assist airports to sustain businesses in order to make sure they pay for their cost of running. So, we will talk to experts on what the best practices are or what we need to do in order to make our airports self-sustaining.
What specific benefits do you think Nigeria will get from this conference in terms of security and safety of our airports?
This conference is going to bring experts from all over the world and they will participate in discussions; there will be meetings and one-on-one interactions, all these arrangements are being made. The entire conference offers these opportunities.
The advantage to Nigeria is that we can go there in numbers. All the operators in Nigeria are invited. They can come and listen to these experts and take home what they want to take home. The other thing is that once the conference starts, it is business throughout. Exhibitors will be there, so anyone that has a particular interest will now look at the programme and choose which one to key into and take advantage of.
Manufacturers will be there; they will come and exhibit their products. There will be other issues on security and safety. Usually the emphases are on safety and security but this time around, we will divert a little bit to commercials and the sustainability of business in African airports. We will make sure experts in this field talk to us. There will still be a lot of safety and security issues that will be discussed in the conference.
What implementation plans are you looking at having?
In ACI what we do is to develop programmes. Every conference that we do, there is a programme that comes out of it. This is why we have airport excellence in safety and it is a programme, so you key into it. You send the experts there and they go and help you check how safe your airports are and how safe your operations are and they give you a document. The document they gave us on Murtala Muhammed Airport is over 100 pages and we have to implement that.
APEX in security was approved in Mauritius last conference. Nigeria was the first country to key into APEX in Security. What I expect in this conference is that at the end of it, we will come up on something on commercials. Then we will recommend a best practice and any airport that has not reached this level can key into this.
Experts will come and they will look at it and tell us what we are not doing right and how we can correct them. It is not a kind of conference that you will come and people will deliver lectures and everyone walks away. We will develop a programme out of each conference. Even the Apex in security that is already running, we have continued to develop it. During the conference, people will come with new ideas and we adopt. So, we will develop programmes during the conference and implement them. Experts key into them and we will send the experts to the airports to assist these airports to bring their levels up.
What is happening with the concession of our airports?
There is a lot of work going on and we need to develop a business case. We have consultants that are working. What they need to do is to look at the current situation, what do we have? How do we do it? There are lots of documentations going on at the moment and the consultants are working. Until they finish the development of a business case and then come up with the entire documentations that are needed, then we can now present it to investors.
Over the years, Africa has scored low on airport ratings, management and safety. What is your evaluation of these ratings and how what is the rating of Nigerian airport?
The people that rate the airports are either the professional bodies, the Civil Aviation Authority of the country, (CAA), the ACI experts or the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). These are the people that have the tools to rate the airports.
I have seen other people rating airports but I don’t consider that kind of rating professional because you go there, look at an airport and make comments and you say you are rating airports. But there are standard tools by ICAO, ACI and by NCAA to rate the airports. NCAA everyday visits the airports and come up with ratings. These agencies are specialised. They have experts in safety, fire, rescue, security, facilitation and aerodrome standards. They will go to the airport and look at them.
After these, they will tell you if it is below standard and what needs to be improved upon. Even the implementation of the plans is done under safety standards. For example the APEX and safety that we did in Abuja and Lagos, experts came from various countries and they look at the airports. These are experts in aerodrome and other specialisations. These are people that are qualified and have the right certification.
They will come to the airport and we allow them access to everywhere and they will assess and see the areas that are lagging. They will look to see if what is on ground agrees with things that are in the books. They tell you areas you need to improve upon. They will tell you if the airport is okay in terms of safety, security and aerodrome standards amongst others. They come back with corrective action plans and they will tell you what to do about it and during what time frame. If they are things that cannot be done, then aeronautical study needs to be carried out to say these are the procedures to go around the issue.
There are no difference in the ratings and the assessments; whether it is done it is done in Maiduguri, New York or anywhere else. It is the same people and they will do it. The good thing is that airport are categorised and within your category, you will be assessed based on that. If you say your critical aircraft is Boeing 747, then we will assess you based on that critical aircraft and that standard. Do you have enough manpower to handle 747? Do you have enough runways? Do you have enough parking spaces? Are the signs okay? Can the pilot see them? So these are the assessments of an airport.
How has visa on arrival helped facilitate the ease of doing business?
Visa on arrival is on the increase in Nigeria. The whole thing is to make travel and business easy. So, if I don’t have to apply for visa and go for visa interview in a country and I know that if I come to Nigeria, I can get visa, it makes life easy. A lot of people are encouraged to travel. So, they send an application online and by the time they arrive here, they just submit their passports and they are issued visas. This will encourage people because it makes life and travel easy.
All you need to do is to send your applications and fill the forms online. By the time you arrive at the airport, it takes a few minutes to get the visa. This encourages people to travel. That is why the number of visa on arrival is on the increase. Before the introduction of visa on arrival, in some countries where we don’t have embassy, it makes life difficult for people to travel. There was a time the Canadian government removed their embassy from Nigeria, so we had to go to Ghana to get visa. If there was visa on arrival, why do I need to spend a night in Accra, just to get visa? With visa on arrival, you send your application, once you get approval, you travel.
What informs the choice of Oriental hotel for the Airports Council International (ACI) conference, considering the challenge with parking and the traffic gridlock to the island?
We don’t expect so much movement during the conference. Once you check-in, that hotel is business throughout. Oriental hotel has the facility that we require. They have exhibition halls, meeting rooms and accommodation. There are other hotels around we have prepared that will support, in case the accommodation in Oriental hotel is not sufficient. If people cannot afford Oriental hotel, there are other hotels that are affordable around. We have looked round and considering what we require, we discovered that Oriental hotel will be the best.