In a recent press conference with aviation journalists, the Chairman of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), Dr. Wale Babalakin, revealed his company’s interest in partaking in the ongoing concession bidding for the four key airports in Abuja, Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Kano, albeit with reservations to the entire process.
His interest in the bidding sparked the curiosity of some, who saw things differently, owing to the present claims that BASL and FAAN are at loggerheads with regards to the present concession agreement. In response, the BASL boss had this to say:
“BASL is interested in anything that is intelligent infrastructure development. I have had people say are you a business man? I am not a business man, I am a lawyer and an infrastructure developer. I don’t trade; I don’t import and export. What is my interest? Infrastructure development – and that’s where you find me. So, we are interested, but we are more interested in the process leading to the emergence and we believe that we are entitled to be first option. In any very organized country, we would be given the first option.”
Despite his apparent interest, Dr. Babalakin put forward a number of arguments that tell of his reservations with regards to the entire process.
According to him, the Federal Government (FG) should provide the necessary services for setting up MMA2 for regional operations, as BASL has already allocated space for that; the non-usage of which is costing the operator huge losses with each passing day: “We are losing a lot of money because we invested a lot in creating [the] regional wing on our platform but I may not know offhand the exact amount we are losing”, he said.
The Chairman went on to say that owing to BASL’s fourteen-years track record, the operator should have been given preference in the process – an opinion he shared while questioning the track record of the foreign bidders who have also expressed interest. According to him, only Nigerian bidders with the capacity to take on such a task should be interested in the bidding.
Sympathizing with both airlines and passengers, Dr. Babalakin spoke of how much the airlines will save, in terms of cost, if they didn’t need to transport passengers from MMA2 to the international wing so that they can connect with regional flights; and also, how much easier the entire process will be for passengers – no doubt, one additional reason why BASL is the ideal concessionaire in this case.
Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL) is the present operator of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2 (MMA2) – a dispensation granted by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
