Why Passengers’ Flight Delay May Continue In Abuja Airport, Others

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Persistent downtime of automated check-in systems at the Nnamdi
Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja and in Lagos airports
has been traced to the abrupt withdrawal of services by Societe
International Telecommunication Aeronautiques (SITA), according to
the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and may not change
any time soon.

The disruption, which has lasted about a month, has rendered
international passenger facilitation chaotic and outbound flights
delayed.

It was learnt that though SITA’s contract expired in May 2021,
its operations were extended for another six months pending the
switchover to another service provider that sent a bid and won the
contract.

SITA, however, shut down operations at the beginning of June
over FAAN’s indebtedness.

Foreign airlines have since then been conducting passenger
facilitation by improvising with alternative platforms to check-in
passengers and conduct necessary screening.

Some of the airlines, as of yesterday, issued handwritten
boarding passes and baggage tags to the dismay of travellers.

Findings showed that both the Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria (FAAN) and the new service provider, RESA Airport Data
System, were caught unawares by SITA’s withdrawal.

As part of measures to sustain the critical service, the Federal
Executive Council (FEC) recently approved N10 billion to Airlington
Security Nigeria Services for the automation of Common User
Terminal Equipment (CUTE) in five international airports –Lagos,
Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kano.

Capt. Rabiu Yadudu, Managing Director of FAAN, confirmed that
the contractual agreement between the agency and SITA had
elapsed.

Yadudu told reporters that SITA refused to participate in the
renewal process, which eventually led to RESA being picked as a
replacement.

According to him, the current agreement with RESA was an
extended exercise, emphasising that SITA failed in fulfilling some
of its agreements with FAAN for over a decade, despite being paid,
prompting the government to call for reconciliation of
accounts.

He said: “Our agreement with SITA was due for renewal and SITA
did not participate creditably in line with the Nigerian procuring
process and they are fully aware. We informed them much earlier of
this. However, RESA of France participated and emerged as the only
winner of that procurement process. It was all done
transparently.

“So, to prepare for the exit, we worked with another company
called ICTS to provide the stopgap measures. During the transition,
ICTS will pro kiosk that is easily adoptable for pasvide the
common-user self-service sengers to use for their flight
facilitation and the airlines can easily use the same kiosk within
few minutes to change the name to CUTE, which we provided about 12
months ahead of the transition period just to make sure that things
go on seamlessly.”

Yadudu pledged that FAAN would continue to provide the best
service to its clients, stressing that the contract with RESA was
an extended agreement.

Besides, he admitted that the outbreak of the pandemic led to
about five months delay in payments to SITA, but assured that all
outstanding payments would be settled.

FAAN, however, urged airlines, passengers and other stakeholders
at Lagos airports to bear with the Authority as some facilities at
the airport were functioning below capacity due to system upgrade
challenges, thereby slowing the pace of passenger facilitation.

Henrietta Yakubu, General Manager, Corporate Affairs, FAAN, said
while the Authority is doing everything possible to commission the
brand-new international terminal in Lagos as soon as possible to
reduce the stress on our customers, “we are also working
assiduously to ensure that the aged equipment/facilities at the old
terminal are maintained in optimal working conditions.”