By Kenneth Ehigiator
The relative peace that had pervaded the nation’s Aviation industry is again being threatened, this time by the ongoing war between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and Maevis Nigeria Limited. Maevis, provider of airport operations management system, AOMS, at some of the nation’s international airports, is one of FAAN’s numerous concessionaires.

On October 31, 2007, FAAN entered into an agreement with the company to  acquire, instal, operate and manage an integrated Airport Operation Management System, AOMS, Common User Self-Service System, CUSS, Flight Information Display System, FIDS and an Airport Pricing and Billing System at four international airports.

According to the airport authorities, the aim of the agreement was to put in place an electronic payment system to stave off leakages in its revenue generation and earn more money for airport development and maintenance.

The agreement also specified that Maevis should solely fund the project at a total cost of N3,959,293,695.97 and operate the facility for 10 years in the first instance, after which it would be renewed for another five years, subject to performance, and based on the agreement, FAAN was to pay Maevis two per cent of the base revenue collected and where revenue collected exceeded FAAN’s projected base revenue (as contained in Schedule 3 of the annexure to the agreement in any year), 35 per cent of that additional revenue above the agency’s 2007 numbers was to be paid to Maevis.

However, FAAN dismissed Maevis’s claim that it spent more than N7 billion on the project after only deploying partially in Lagos and Abuja, stressing that the additional N3 billion plus the company claimed to have spent on the project was done without application to FAAN for a variation, and for which it secured no approval.

“Maevis did not even inform FAAN of such additional investments. Thus, FAAN cannot be held to ransom for unilateral and unauthorised additional investments claimed by Maevis, made of their own volition, in breach of the terms of the agreement,” FAAN had said in a statement.

Besides this, management of FAAN had also complained that rather than earning more money, Maevis’ poor revenue collection had increased its debts profile by as much as N9 billion within just three years of the agreement, and called for a review of the agreement in such a manner as would benefit both parties.