Chinese debt on airport terminals grown to $1bn - unions

Unions in Nigeria’s aviation sector have declared that the planned concession which will see the concessionaire take 60 percent of the revenue sharing formula while FAAN gets 40 percent and still has to service the Chinese debt of over US1 billion is dead on arrival.

The Federal Airports Au t h o r i t y of Ni g e r i a ( FAAN) unions represented by Air Transport Senior Staff Association of NIGERIA(ATSSSAN), National Union of Air Transport Employees ( NUATE), Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals ( ANAP) and the Nigerian Union of Pensioners( NUP) on Thursday refused the minister of aviation, Hadi Sirika access to the Freedom Square at the Lagos airport, to speak to FAAN staff.

The unions alleged that the minister has continued to pitch his concession stand and get photo ops so as to tell the President that all was well, but all, according to the unions, is far from being well.

Ocheme Aba, general secretary of NUATE, who was one of the spokespersons of the unions said the planned concession was done in a way to cripple and finally destroy FAAN, saying that apart from the debt incurred from the Chinese terminal which has grown to $1billion, monies accruable to FAAN would be used for debt servicing, maintenance of other 18 airports and other expenses leaving nothing for FAAN to survive with.

“The new Chinese terminals are going to be concessioned where the concessionaire will receive 60 percent of the sharing formula while FAAN will retain 40 percent and what will happen to the 40 percent that FAAN will retain? From that 40 percent, FAAN will pay the Chinese loan, return 25 percent to the Federal Government according to the Fiscal Responsibility Act and maintain the other 18 airports, including workers of FAAN.

“So the point is this terminal is already on concession and what is happening is that the Federal Government is seeking to concession a concession. Now this concessionaire will take 60 percent. What is the consionaire’s contribution and what is the concessionaire going to do? According to the traffic flow, there will be no need for any expansion in this terminal until the year 2045.

“There is no need for expansion, in other words these terminals are meant to maintain and sustain the traffic flow in all the projections till 2045. The concession period is for 20 years that means the concession will end in 2040; what that means is throughout the concession period, there will be no expansion for the airport.

Aba said the unions were not fighting for personal interest, but to end the pillage of a few privileged people taking the nation’s common patrimony and sharing it.