By Dickson Omobola

Following a six-month refurbishment, British Airways has opened a renovated luxurious lounge at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos.

According to the carrier, the space was transformed to give customers more room to enjoy an upgraded food and beverage experience.

Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mrs Olubunmi Kuku, who spoke at the launch, said: “Coming in here to experience this new lounge with the British Airways in partnership with STS clearly demonstrates the development that British Airways is bringing to Nigeria. 

“I walked around the lounge and I asked very simple questions of which I got very remarkable answers. A lot of the work that was done in the lounge today was done in collaboration with Nigerian entrepreneurs. You heard about the collaboration with the gallery. A lot of the woodwork and furniture comes from Nigerian entrepreneurs. It makes me proud. I also looked at the cuisine that they are serving as well as the experience.

“Each area has a charging section and there are rest areas, wheelchair accessibility. They have ensured that passengers with disabilities are catered to.  I do notice that they also have a rest area as well showers. I will definitely say that this experience is comparable to all global locations where British airways has a first class lounge. I’m extremely proud of them and I’m hoping that we see more collaboration and better expansion as we go along.”

On the situation of airports across the country, she said: “I do want to say that yes we inherited aging and decaying infrastructure, but that is still not an excuse. Our immediate plans are to start with minor modifications, we need to start with the maintenance policy first and we need to ensure that very simple things like lighting in our airports, the cooling system will start to work effectively. Without rushing to the press, I also want to say that our focus is on a master plan within the airport environment that we can follow.

“For Lagos airport as a whole, Lagos serves as the gateway for majority of our passengers that are coming into Nigeria, followed by Abuja. We are doing some work around our domestic terminals as we speak. At the international terminal in Lagos, as we speak, we are looking to quickly do some immediate rehabilitations in one wing of the airport and then a major overhaul in the other wing. So, we can use one wing in collaboration with the new international terminal that we have.  That gives us a bit of relief where our passengers will have easy access while we focus on the needed overhaul.”