.. As space constraints keep foreign airlines away
Foreign airlines have abandoned the newly commissioned $100million international terminal at the Muritala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos to continue to operate at the terminal 1 of the international airport over space
constraint for wide body aircraft, an investigation has shown.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had in
March, 2022 commissioned the new airport terminal in Lagos, saying the newly created commissioned international terminal, will fast track over 14million passengers yearly and create 3000 direct and indirect jobs.
According to LEADERSHIP, the terminal had 66 check-in counters, five baggage collection carousels, 16 Immigration Desks at Arrival, 28 Desks at departure, 8 Security Screening Points, 6 passenger boarding bridges with remote boarding and arrival.
Other facilities include 2 food courts, 4 premium lounges, 22 guest rooms, 16 airline ticketing offices, visa on arrival and port health facility, praying areas, 3,000sqm duty free spaces and over 5,000sqm let-table utility spaces.
However, except for Air Peace airline and few others that have started operating its international flight from the terminal, several foreign carriers, including Qatar Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, British Airways among others, have not relocated their international operations to the new terminal.
Air Peace spokesperson, Stanley Olisa, had notified the flying public that from April 19, 2022, Its international and regional flight departures will now be at the Terminal 2 of the Lagos Airport. The statement read: “We are delighted to be the first airline to operate a flight at the newly commissioned MMIA Terminal 2 and going forward, all our regional and international departures will
be from this new terminal. We commend the federal government for the feat, and Air Peace will
continue to blaze the trail.”
Olisa added that passengers flying to Accra, Banjul, Freetown, Douala, Dakar, Johannesburg and Dubai are henceforth expected to proceed to the new terminal for ticketing, check-in and boarding.
It was further gathered that the the airlines continue to operate at the airport’s old terminal because it doesn’t have the apron space to accommodate widebody aircraft.
Due to this space constraint, majority of airlines are shunning the new terminal in favor of the older Terminal 1.
Stakeholders, however, argued that due to lack of apron space wide enough to accommodate certain widebody aircraft like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, 777,747 and Airbus A380, foreign airlines abandoned the terminal.
Corroborating this, the acting general manager, Corporate Affairs, FAAN, Faithful HopeIvbaze, said there are plans to expand the apron to accommodate more aircrafts.
