Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Ltd, Mr. Alex Van Elk dwells on the controversial size of the apron at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2. He spoke with Tayo Odunlami and Funsho Balogun

Q: Virgin Nigeria, in its refusal to relocate to the MMA2, has been harping on certain deficiencies regarding apron size and other safety issues. What are the technicalities, in clear times, involved in this apron face-off?
A: In clear terms, there are no deficiencies. There are two things. The design of the apron and its capacity. The apron has been designed in line with International Civil Aviation Organisation and experts’ guidelines, and according to standard aerodrome designs. On capacity, we have 14 parking positions at our apron, meaning six fingers boarding bridges and eight remote parking positions.
These 14 positions are not enough to cover all the traffic. For that reason, we have received approval from the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria to operate the General Aviation Terminal, the apron and the terminal. That has given us 17 parking positions at the old GAT and a total of 31 parking positions, which is enough to cover all demands now and in the future. Apart from that, we’re working on the extension of our terminal, which will materialise in the next two years. That will double our terminal capacity and also add extra parking positions to the ones we have already.

Q: Did the International Air Transport Association truly raise reservations about the MMA2 apron and other shortcomings, as is being bandied by Virgin Nigeria?
Ä: I don’t want to say too much anymore about the IATA report. We know there’s a contact in the IATA report about our airport, but it has been clearly stated by Dr. Demuren, Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, that IATA never visited our facility. It was not on their agenda and they have never been here. So, all the statements that were in the report came mainly from a Virgin Nigeria source and they are based on e-mail sent internally two months before the IATA audit.
The part about our terminal is false, as has been confirmed by the NCAA. I want to add that we’ve been audited by the NCAA, FAAN and the other parastatals about four times before we received approval to operate. These public bodies will never give an approval for a terminal to operate if everything is not okay. That clearly underlines the questionability of the so-called IATA report.

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