By Sade Williams
The managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has expressed satisfaction with the Airport Excellence (APEX) programme initiated by Airports Council International (ACI) Africa, saying it assisted the Authority in the certification of Lagos and Abuja airports.
The Airport Excellence (APEX) in Safety Programme provides assistance for ACI members to improve their level of safety and compliance with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Standards and Recommended Practices.
He stated this while delivering his speech at the on-going 59th ACI-Africa Board and Committees Meetings and Regional Conference and Exhibition in Lagos.
Dunoma said major airports continue to requests for this programme because of its efficiency, adding the objective of FAAN is to certify all Nigerian airports.
The FAAN boss, who revealed that Nigeria signed the agreement to become one of the AC1 global training centers to further advance the goal of human capacity development in FAAN and in Africa, added that the first training was conducted in December 2017 where Nigeria received participants from other African countries.
“Over the years, ACI Africa had focused on safety as a priority leading to the initiation of the world wide acknowledged Airport Excellence (APEX) in safety programme. This has recorded great achievements as major airports continue to requests for this programme.
“Nigeria has been in the forefront in striving to attain the highest levels of safety standards, hence with the assistance of the APEX in safety programme, we were able to achieve the certification of our 2 busiest airports.
“Our goal is to certify all our international airports and we are working tirelessly to achieve that, hem we have taken the bold step to carry out the APEX in safety programmes in our international airports.
“The APEX review for Kano and Port were carried out in March while reviews for Enugu and Kaduna airports are scheduled for June this year.
He noted that the evolving nature of airport management demands a transformation of airports which now mostly serve as public service providers and not commercial enterprises that are efficiently managed to generate more revenues and subsequently declare profits.
“We are gathered here to seek ways to achieve this unique goal of transforming our airports into viable, sustainable business entities and looking at the sessions lined up for the conference, I am sure that we will all be imparted with knowledge and ideas that will facilitate and accelerate our quests for financial liberation and transformation”, he added.
