The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN through their managing director Captain Rabiu Yadudu, told journalists in Lagos that majority of the foreign airlines have refused to move to the new terminal which was just recently built and commissioned by the president in March. The terminal at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport , Lagos was built by the loans gotten from China and it is not the only to experience this renovation as Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja and Port Harcourt International Airport new terminals were also funded by the EXIM Bank of China.
Foreign carriers which includes the British Airways, Emirates Airlines, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa have not yet relocated their aircraft to the new terminal. Most of these foreign carriers have large-body aircraft like the B787 Dreamliner, Boeing 777, B747, and A330.
The MD of FAAN has however said that the authority would have to force the airlines to relocate to the New terminal at the right time time because they cannot dictate to them.
He said that those that had not relocated want to paint the country in bad light as the have complained about the small size of the new terminal’s aprons, which is making it difficult for large jets of the foreign carriers to be parked. He added that they are not ready to force them yet as the relocation is currently being done in stages and soon every airline would be able to use the new terminal.
“The relocation is in phases. No airport system will say you want to relocate to a new terminal and you want to remove everybody, you will crash. So, we sent two airlines and other ones will follow. I told them to move the airlines that operate morning and afternoon flights so that we will decongest the old terminal.”
