Austin Ayemidejor, Project Manager, Asaba Airport, says the state government’s plan to concession the airport will create more jobs and not lead to job loss.
The project manager, stated this in an on Wednesday in Asaba.
Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa had at various fora announced that the airport would be privatised or commercialized to enable the private sector to drive the project and make it more profitable.
Ayemidejor, noted that government really had no business running a business but its focus should be to create the enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
He said that the concession would expand the activities in the airport and attract more investments such as hospitality industry and its subsidiaries, like the airport cab operators.
The project manager noted that the airport currently had about 100 staff, adding that the workers were well trained for the job they do at the airport.
He said that most of the departments were specialized department such that the concessioner must work with them.
“The concession of the airport will create more jobs and not in any way lead to job loss because it is structured in a manner that it will not in any way affect the current numerical strength of staff.
“I don’t also have the feelings that any concessioner will just come and lay off the entire staff of Asaba airport because they need them; aviation needs a lot of training and retraining.
“For instance, you cannot just lay-off the fire fighters, aviation security personnel.
“The second thing is that there are departments that you must mandatorily work with. The Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Metrological staff and others,” Ayemidejor said.
He said that work on the airport perimeter fencing had reached 80 per cent completion and that the Instrument Landing System (ILS) at the airport would become fully operational in few weeks.
Ayemidejor said that in preparation for the Yuletide, Nigeria’s premier carrier, Air Peace Airline would deploy boeing 737 and other aircrafts to take the pressure of passengers during the period.
According to him the construction work at the airport started in 2008 while flight operations commenced in July 2011.
