The Federal Airport Authority (FAAN) says it has completed the removal of all abandoned and disused aircraft from the air side of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Ikeja, Lagos.
Mr Yakubu Dati, the General Manager, Corporate Communications of FAAN, made this known in Lagos on Sunday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Dati said that most of the abandoned aircraft were dismantled and sold as scraps to the public, while others were bought by individuals for business interests.
Dati, however, denied that N120 million was generated from the sale of the abandoned aircraft at the airport.
He said that the destruction and evacuation of no fewer than 65 airplanes abandoned by domestic airlines was taking place in eight airports across the country.
”We have completed that of Lagos airport; we are still working at Benin, Kano, Port Harcourt and some other few airports.
”Once we are done with all the airports in the country, we shall let the public know.
”We cannot give a particular figure of the remaining aircraft in each airport, but we are almost done.
”FAAN has not come out to claim it has generated money from this evacuation; the alleged money said to have been generated was a rumour.”
According to Dati, some of the abandoned aircraft have been at the airport environment for almost 10 years.
”None of them is serviceable because most of their owners have closed shop; unfortunately, such owners don’t want to evacuate them for reasons best known to them.
”Today, we have removed everything; our air side is free,” he said
