FAAN sets to generate revenue from non-aeronautical sources

A committee to help boost revenue generation for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has been set up.

The Managing Director of FAAN, Mr Saleh Dunoma, said the agency planned to generate revenue from non-aeronautical sources.

Dunoma said it had become necessary for airports globally to diversify their revenue generation away from airlines primary revenue sources, and Nigeria should not be left out.

According to him, the committee, which he will oversee, is made up of relevant directorates and departments responsible for revenue generation for FAAN and will create a roadmap for the process.

He explained that apart from Nigeria, other airport authorities across Africa were also deliberating on how to increase their non-aeronautical revenue services, which he said formed the theme of this year’s Airports Council International conference in Egypt.

Dunoma said, “What we intend to do is to diversify our revenue sources. In Africa, we have not tapped into non-aeronautical sources and we are encouraging African airports to look at non-aeronautical revenue sources of revenue because aeronautical sources of revenues have limitations; they are highly dependent on flight operations.

“The non-aeronautical sources of revenue are being developed so much that they can be in pari-passu with the aeronautical sources of revenue. This is what we want African airports to develop. Some papers were presented to guide African airports to develop that area.

“As a matter of fact, I just finished a meeting with my team. I set up a team on revenue generation and this team is chaired by me. It is very sensitive to the survival of African airports especially FAAN.”

He said the committee had been meeting and would continue to meet every week until the desired results were achieved.

“We have not come up with a target yet, but the committee will come up with that. There are lots of departments involved, including engineering and commercial. By the time we develop some projects, we will have revenue targets that we want to achieved. This will be done by the committee,” he said.

Dunoma also stated that the agency had commenced processes that would enable officials of its Aviation Security to bear arms beginning from this year.

“There are certain projects that we need to implement before they can start carrying arms. Number one, we have to get the arms. Number two, we have to store the ammunitions somewhere. We need to embark on projects that will enable us to have storage somewhere at the airport. Number three, we need to profile and train them. It is not everybody that will bear arms. This, we must apply,” he said.