Captain Abdullahi Mohmood is the Director Airport Operations at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). In this interview with SHOLA ADEKOLA, he spoke on different issues including underutilised airports, abandoned aircraft, infrastructural challenges and many more.
What efforts is FAAN putting in place to mitigate effects of degrading infrastructure?
What FAAN is doing to scale up inadequate infrastructure? I will speak about perimeter fencing. Aviation is my constituency. I have been in aviation for a while. I am a pilot, because I still fly. Lagos is, unfortunately, so choked up. So, sometimes you find out that traffic is very heavy if you have more screening machines. The space to place the screening machine is not there, because we still have like four or five screening machines lying down, because there is nowhere to put them. So, are you going to pull down the whole building? Because at the end of the day, that is exactly what is going to happen. This is one of the biggest challenges that we have been discussing, deliberating, looking at from every angle, how we are going to mitigate this factor. We are working on this GAT Terminal to extend it. Then now we have the effect on our apron, which is a very big challenge to us, because the apron is very small. Sometimes if you go there at night, and see how aircraft are packed at that place, it is very worrisome.
What are the solutions to the problem about?
There is a master plan, the airport master plan, which now we are seriously working on. The Minister wants to see this master plan so that we can sit down and now drive it. By the time we start driving it and effecting it, I think all these issues that we are looking at like these challenges of space will be sorted out. And then another option is that we are trying to leverage some of our airports that have been underutilized to see how we can give airlines some incentives so that at least we can pull out some of the airlines to those airports whereby we have them but they are heavily underutilized. So these are some of the options that we are looking at. If you can offer incentives to airlines and say, oh, If you go to a so-so airport, you land, this is what we are going to offer to you. This is to encourage the airlines to utilise those airports, so you can reduce the pressure on some of the major airports.
What are you efforts in ensuring that Lagos airport is rid of cannibalised aircraft?
I can assure you, there is work in progress on this and we are making headway on it. I think about a month or five weeks ago, the Minister was here. And he personally went to the graveyard area. I just don’t want to say what we are doing, but I assure you something is going to be done. You will see the results.
What you have done since your assumption of office as Director of Airport Operations at FAAN?
There are a lot of challenges in FAAN as we are all aware. We are doing our best to see how we can overcome these challenges. As you know, in any challenge you will always see an opportunity. One of the most significant challenges that we met on ground was the closure of Runway 18 Right at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. It is one of the significant runways that we have in Lagos, and you know Lagos is one of the prime airports in Nigeria today. When we came in, that runway was on the renovation, which was slated initially for six weeks. By then, the runway had already been overrun for eight months and was still closed. There were a lot of issues on the contractual terms or whatever is given on that particular runway. So we discussed it with the MD, and MD now pushed it over to the Minister, who as you know is one person that will do whatever is needed to bring positive change to the aviation industry; he is ready to do it. And he went out of his way with the MD to ensure that that runway was opened. So we did everything possible to make sure that the runway was open, and put on the runway lighting. We then fixed the Link 1 that was closed also, which is a good thing. Now we have two runways that are perfectly working in Lagos. And also we have so many other airports that have some challenges. As you are aware, last year, the Hajj operation was not done in Ilorin, because of runway lighting. But this time around, we made sure that okay, we have the runway lighting operational in Ilorin and the Hajj Operation was successfully done in Ilorin. We have also ventured into looking at upgrading of facilities because there is so much decay in our facilities as we know. Some of the buildings have been there for 40 years, and when buildings have been there for that long definitely you will just be doing a lot of palliative work. Although, the plan is to see that we remodel everything, but definitely these things take time… it is not something that can be done overnight. But because we have the backing of the Minister and the backing of the MD, whatever that I need, I always get it. I always get it. I have never taken anything to the MD or to the Minister that has been thrown back to me. Another challenge that we are having is our toilets. The toilets of the airport are appalling. So now we ventured into looking at how to upgrade the whole toilets, most especially the five international airports that we have, and the work is still ongoing, and on remodeling of toilets, very soon, Nigerians will see the new toilets that we are going to launch in all the terminals in Nigerian airports. That work is already ongoing. On the issue of certification of our airports, most especially the Lagos and Abuja airport certification, this is still ongoing. The major challenge that we have, there are so many gaps that we found when we came in. We have seen the report from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, whereby these gaps need to be closed. I will tell you confidently today that most of the gaps that needed to be closed for the certification have already been closed, most of the gaps. There are lots of misunderstandings. People are talking about all these excursions that we were having. Immediately we came in, what we did, first of all, we had a schedule, and when we mean by a schedule, a schedule for the runway friction test, and derubberization. It is not every time that you just go and do derubberization on the runway, which is not how it works. Derubberization has a schedule and the schedule is based on the number of landings of an aircraft on a particular runway, then now you can use that to measure the frequency of the derubberization. Apart from the landing, also there is what we call the friction test. You normally do a friction test, then the friction test the results will determine whether that runway needs derubberisation or not. So, once you do a friction test, there is no derubberization required is fine, but if derubberization is required, you do the derubberization, then after you do another friction test. So you have the result of before and after you must date it. So since we came, we have a schedule for all the runways in Nigeria as of today and we follow the schedule religiously. At any point in time we can tell you which runway had a friction test and which runway is due for derubberization, we can tell you. So we have that and we make it as a time plan, which is working perfectly for us.
What is the schedule FAAN is running like?
I just already told you, I said it depends on the number of landings or aircraft on a runway. Based on the number of landings of aircraft. There are airports that you need to do the friction test every month. In some airports, you have to do it quarterly. Some airports you have to do it biannually, because there are airports that do maybe just one flight a week. If you are doing one flight a week, definitely probably, in the end, you can do derubberisation maybe once in a year. You cannot compare that particular runway in an airport that you are having probably a hundred flights in a day. I want to make it very, very clear. When they talk about excursions, people just put the cart before the horse.
There are one thousand and one reasons that may cause excursions. What is the time of landing? What was the weather condition? Was the runway wet? Was it windy? At what point did the pilot touch down? They all matter. And another thing is that aircraft may have its issues. What if the aircraft doesn’t have an anti-skit? So there are issues that we need to look at before talking about derubberization.
Your assessment of the evacuation equipment. Does FAAN have enough evacuation equipment?
Yes, we have the aircraft recovery equipment. We have a complete set in Abuja. This equipment is not the kind that you must have at every airport. It is very, very expensive equipment. And it is not equipment that you just buy and put in a store. In some countries that have it, neighbouring countries when they need it, they fly it down, to remove aircraft. We have enough. We have a complete set and the operators are trained. They were in the Netherlands; they went to the UK for training. It is brand new equipment sitting down fully serviceable. As I am talking to you now, the Minister is in the process of buying another set, bringing it to Lagos. I have seen it, they have already started talking to the people and all the process of the purchase is in the pipeline. Infrastructure is key to airline operations.
