Hope Rises as TAV Wins Concession of Lagos International Airport

Chinedu Eze

After many years of speculations and projections, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has disclosed that TAV Airports Holding has won the bid for the concession of the Lagos airport.

THISDAY learnt that the consortium formed by TAV Airports Holding, NAHCO Management Services Ltd and Planet Project Limited, submitted bids for the tender to operate and develop the international passenger and cargo terminals of Lagos Airport in Nigeria for a period of 20 years, a development that raised the hope of industry stakeholders. 

According to an announcement made by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, the Consortium has been selected as the preferred bidder, but the selection is subject to the necessary official approvals.

“After the necessary approvals are obtained, the next step in the tender process is a negotiation stage between FAAN and the Consortium,” the agency explained.

TAV Airports Holding is a Turkish airport operation and services firm that is part of Groupe ADP. It is one of the world’s largest airport operators, providing services to one million flights and 152 million passengers, according to 2018 available records.

THISDAY learnt that a team from the company visited the Lagos and Abuja airports in 2016 to inspect facilities and since then has been interested in investing in airport development in Nigeria.

In January 2021, Turkish media reported that TAV Airports Holding was interested in adding projects in Africa and the Balkans to its portfolio, if they corresponded to its strategic and financial goals. The reports indicated that TAV Airports Holding had marked Africa as a ‘leading market’ and the Balkans and Central Asia as ‘developing markets.’

Reacting to the successful bid, the Director, Operations, Cargolux Airlines and the President of the Association of Foreign Airlines (AFARN), Mr. Kingsley Nwokoma, said concessioning the airport was a good move and expressed the hope that the biding was transparently done.

He said that if the process was transparent, there should be kudos to the Ministry of Aviation for midwifing the process and noted that Nigerian airports were in dire need of private sector investment because the facilities needed to be modernised to meet international standards.

According to him, it is good when airlines come to Nigeria they operate in airports that have modern facilities as obtained in other parts of the world.

“If the process is transparent then we look at the experience of the company that won the bid, the ability of the company to deploy funds to upgrade facilities at the airport. We also have to look at the process of the biding because we want to make sure that the process was transparent.  We have to also know the criteria for the selection because I am aware that some Nigerian companies also bided,” he said.

He added: “Concession is good if it is done in the right way. Gathwick in the London and City Airports were given in concession to a Nigerian investor. So with concession, there is strong hope that the airport will look better, have better facilities and also provide a more efficient service to travellers and other airport users. We expect better-trained staff and a more infrastructural development. Concession will inject more money into the system. We know that aviation is very expensive. Many airports now run aerotropolis, where you will have shopping malls, cinemas and other business in an airport environment. We are going to see the efforts of the concessionaire in the new airport that will come,” he said.