MMA2 parking hike not revenue-driven, aimed at curbing abuse — airport management

The Head of Corporate Communications, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, Ajoke Yinka-Olawuyi, has indicated the recent increase in parking fees at the Murtala Muhammed Airport 2 in Lagos was not driven by a desire to generate revenue, but to restore the facility to its original purpose as a short-stay car park. Yinka-Olawuyi, who spoke on Arise TV on Thursday, showed the tariff review had become necessary following years of misuse of the facility by motorists who converted the short-stay car park into a long-term storage lot. “The whole essence of this is not revenue. It is to reinstate and restore the facility back to the purpose that it was intended for, which is short-stay parking, to make accessibility into the terminal,” she showed.

The spokesperson showed prior to the tariff review, which she described as a demand management measure, the terminal’s car park regularly recorded as many as 300 vehicles parked overnight, with some left for as long as a week, three weeks, and in extreme cases, up to six months and one year. “It is not a garage. In some cases, one year — they abandon the cars there,” she indicated. The overcrowding had worsened conditions at the terminal’s drop-off zone, making it difficult for passengers to access the airport.

“This thing even extends and creates a gridlock on our drop-off zone. People even want to drop off — you don’t want to come into the car park, you can drop off and just walk in and your driver drives away from the airport. But to get to that drop-off zone becomes really difficult,” she showed. Yinka-Olawuyi showed MMA2 had been in operation for close to 19 years, with its core focus remaining the delivery of a seamless and secure environment for terminal passengers and car park users.

“MMA2, we’ve been in operation for close to 19 years. We are actually a week shy of our 19th anniversary — exactly Thursday next week will be 19. And the intended use, our focus, our main focus has always been passenger experience, seamless and secured environment for our passengers,” she indicated. The new parking fees at MMA2 had sparked public outrage, with many travellers and commuters describing the rates as excessive and exploitative.