A chartered jet operator, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said, “I think this is an unfair deal. Why should we all be forced to leave the international terminal to a private facility? This is not best practice any where in the world for the government to force operators to be patronising only one Fixed Base Operation.
“What is wrong with our present arrangement? Is this free to us all or this will be an additional cost to our already strained budget? No consultation whatsoever from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria on this before the implementation. There are so many questions. Is this another ‘food for the boys’ arrangement? This is so unfair.”
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The FAAN memo, dated July 4, 2013, signed by the Regional Manager, Mr. E. A. Olarerin, read, “Commencement of international business and private jets operations through Quits Aviation Centre at the MMIA: This is to inform your good office that FAAN signed an MoU with M/S Quits located in the MMIA to begin processing all business and private jets at the Quits Aviation Centre.
“Already, all relevant security agencies involved in this operation have performed due diligence on the facility and have given it a clean bill of health, and have subsequently deployed their staff to the centre. In view of this, we hereby solicit the cooperation of NAMA to direct all such flight to process at the new facility.”
However, the General Manager, Corporate Communications, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati, said there was nothing like barring private and chartered jet operators from the international wing of the MMIA, noting that they were free to operate from there.
But a top official of FAAN, who did not want his name to be mentioned because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said the Federal Government had cancelled the MoU with the FBO operator due to increasing pressure from various quarters over the development.
He said the private jet owners and chartered jet operators were free to go back and start flying through the international wing of the MMIA.
However, findings by our correspondent revealed that most of the private jet owners were not aware of this development as most of them are still flying through the FBO facility.
Punch Nigeria.
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