Chairman of the Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL) Dr. Wale Babalakin has said that the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) belongs to BASL by law, insisting that there is no controversy over the 36 years of concession of the terminal.
Mr. Babalakin was speaking on the plan to concession the four major international airports in the country.
He said Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited should be given the right of first offer in the bidding because it has shown expertise and has excelled in infrastructure development.
Babalakin also disclosed that BASL is interested in the bid for the concessioning of any of the four international terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port-Harcourt.
According to him, BASL has no issue with the 36 years of concession agreement of MMA2 but the only issue is the Authorities refusing to release the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) to it.
“There is a bid going on for the four international terminals, In other climes, the Authorities will call on those who have done it before. But what is the success rate of the companies coming to Nigeria to operate? How can government bring expertise from overseas when you have them locally.?
” BASL is interested in anything that is intellectual infrastructure development. I am a lawyer and an infrastructure developer, we are interested in the concession, in fact we should be the first option because in very organised countries, we would be given a first option offer. And maybe our participation will make process a fair one,” he said.
Babalakin disclosed that BASL has been approached by three African countries to build their terminals.
“I think it will be better to consult those who have track records. Before MMA2, nobody talked about terminals but after the completion of MMA2, Bauchi, Dutse now have terminals and I think Anambra State is planning to have one. We have succeeded immensely as an eye opener to aviation infrastructure development in Nigeria.”
