The Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday approved contract worth over N10 billion for the provision of Airport Management Solutions for Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu international airports.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Aviation, Mr Hadi Sirika, at the end of the weekly FEC meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
He said the contract was awarded to Arlington Security Nigeria Limited with the timeline of 12 months, stressing that the system would facilitate common use of terminal equipment required for sharing airport resources in accordance with IATA Recommendation 1797.
“This allows flexible sharing of resources for check-in and boarding, such as servers, work stations, associated peripherals between airlines and handling agencies present at the airport,” he said.
The minister said the system would also provide for baggage drop, which makes it faster and quicker for passenger processing.
“Another service to be provided is local departure control systems. This is aimed at airlines that are still using manual procedures like locals, domestic and charter etc.
“The system secures and accelerates these operations while ensuring better service for passengers. The system also accepts mobile phone boarding pass or home printed boarding pass, which we didn’t have before,” he said.
He said it would also help in baggage reconciliation system which enables the tracking of baggage from the time passengers arrive up to the time they drop their baggage.
“Automatically, it goes into the system and then go into the aircraft itself. So, this will eliminate the issue of missing baggage or mix-up of baggage to arrive at another location not intended,” he said.
The minister said the system would also provide for E-gates that would be electronically operated.
“This is access control to restrict only passengers and staff to have access to designated areas. The E-gate provides platform to monitor and control to the boarding area.
“In other words, if you come to a self-check-in desk, or you check online or your mobile phone or at home, you can simply come and swipe.”
He explained that it is new and had not been part of the system provided in Lagos and Abuja before now.
“Then, the airport information management system is designed to meet all the operation needs of airports in terms of flight management with the latest upgrade.
“The new system data base for several months forward and can be modified accordingly. This is compatible to IATA and the entire connection model,” he said.
