Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), operators of the Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos Terminal Two (MMA2), has disclosed that it is set to acquire first airport digital cold storage in Nigeria for preservation of perishable cargo.
Remi Jibodu, the acting chief operating officer (COO) who disclosed this recently during a courtesy visit to BusinessDay Media at Ikoyi, Lagos said the storage system which is the first of its kind in Nigeria is being acquired to address the growing need to preserve perishable cargo that pass through the Lagos airport.
“The aircraft belly cargo is subject to availability. An airline with full flight has a certain amount of cargoes it can carry. Sometimes, the airline cannot carry all the perishable cargoes and this would mean the person sending the cargoes would loss some money; this is often a problem.
“Secondly for those who want to spread their businesses to other States in Nigeria but they are skeptical because there is no cold storage to store their products, can now be confident that our digital cold storage would address these problems,” Jibodu said.
He said MMA2 is creating opportunity for people to do their cargo business seamlessly, adding that the preservation of products such as immunization materials, yogurts, meat amongst others would be done perfectly.
He assured that the new innovation would increase the number of people that do cargo related businesses and grow business revenue for MMA2 at the same time.
“We are very particular about innovation, excellence and efficiency. These have been our guiding principles. Having operated as a terminal for 17 years, there are so many things we have pioneered in the industry. At this time, we are advancing our vision in Nigeria,” he said.
He disclosed that MMA2 recently set up an equipment management department in a bid to address pitfalls it has seen in the industry as regards poor infrastructure.
“We have seen the pitfall and we do not want to get into that pitfall. One thing we can do is to ensure we are holding on to that excellence in which we are known for. Particularly, the fact is that passenger experience is core for us. Any passenger that passes through our terminal must have a fantastic experience. This cuts across our toilets, counters and every other place at the terminal.
“We are looking at the total output. For instance when you have an aircraft that wants to depart at 7.am, what is the on-time performance of that aircraft as a result of what we have provided? This is the reason why it is very key. If the conveyor belt is working properly and every other thing we use to facilitate the passengers are working properly, it means we would contribute to the output like the on time performance of the airline,” he explained.
He said in April, MMA2 recorded 62 percent on-time performance in terms of departure of the airline, in May, it increased to 76 percent.
He said from January till date, the average have been 74 percent, adding they MMA2 is working relentlessly to achieve between 85 to 90 percent.
“The reason why I didn’t say 100 percent is because there are certain things we cannot control. If we have weather and tech issues, we may not be able to control that.
“We have never been out of power for more than 20 seconds. We have value added services. The passengers have been patronising us for the past 17 years and therefore we can’t continue to do the same things. We had to find out the agitations and growing needs of the passengers,” he said.
The COO also said they have enhanced the wi-fi system at the airport, as passengers can now access wi-fi system around the terminal departure hall and private departure area, which is the terminal’s premium service area.
He said the Wi-fi services was recently extended to the food court because passengers with delayed flights often go to this area of the terminal.
He said through the surveillance system of MMA2, the terminal has been able to stop stowaways and retrieved stolen items from the terminal and aircraft from unscrupulous individuals.
