Nigerians who travel to international destinations from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos have lamented the depreciation of facilities at the terminal, thereby making passenger facilitation a horrible experience.
The passengers decried the limited capacity of the terminal, broken down air conditioning and the obsolete carousel (conveyor belt), which fail to work most of the time in recent times.
When THISDAY visited the terminal, passengers on arrival and others who were checking in to leave the country, complained that facilities at the airport terminal, which processes over 60 per cent of Nigerians who travel aboard, have degenerated.
Giving that the country is now into dry season, the terminal has become so hot because most of the air conditioners are not working efficiently.
Also, the conveyor belt breaks down very often, thereby causing flight delays and those working at the airport suffer from heat.
Informed source told THISDAY that the passenger facilitation system, Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE), which International Aeronautical Telecommunications Society (SITA) withdrew its services in May last year and replaced by RESA still experiences hiccups, which also delays passenger movement.
In August last year, the Managing Director of FAAN, Captain Rabiu Yadudu assured air travellers that passenger facilitation system would be restored in a more efficient manner but since then, airlines have been complaining about the inefficient service under RESA.
"The previous system we had is CUTE, the Common User Terminal Equipment, but we now want to upgrade to new technology, which isCUPPS: Common User Passengers Processing System. In addition, the self-service kiosk we never had, which is CUSE (Common User Self Service) comes with the new system. The departure control system we never had is all now here, baggage reconciliation system is coming here; FIDS (Flight Information Display System) will be installed too, at least in Lagos," Yadudu had assured, but international airlines said that that system is not working effectively.
Last week, a well-known Nigerian entertainer arrived the country through the Lagos airport and complained about the heat, saying that she had pity for the personnel who work at the terminal.
Also an aviator who was travelling out of the country wrote, "I am currently at MMIA trying to check-in. No belts (conveyor belt) working. I'm sweating buckets as (there is) no air conditioning and wondering what I paid $200 PSC (Passenger Service Charge) for?"
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