The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), recently acquired new technology in an effort to ensure seamless facilitation of international passengers across the 4 major international airports in the country.
This new technology which had since arrived in the country is currently being installed and some foreign airlines have been integrated into the system.
The new technology ‘Common Use Passenger Processing System’ (CUPPS) is an improvement on the previous one called the Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE).
CUPPS is an IT solution enabling multiple airlines, service companies, or other users to use a uniform electronic interface for sharing physical check-in.
Managing Director, FAAN, Captain Rabiu Yadudu says the new technology and other facilities would be deployed in the five international airports, in addition to self-service Kiosk, departure control and baggage reconciliation systems and Flight Information Display System.
“We went for an upgrade, the Common User Passengers Processing system (CUPPS), this was the new technology since 2009 and now 11 years later, Nigeria is using the CUPPS system”.
Captain Yadudu said.
The old passenger facilitation system collapsed a few months ago when the contractor unceremoniously backed out. Airlines had to resort to handwritten boarding passes and bag tags for passengers leading to series of delays in facilitation.
Many foreign airlines had to rely on their own system to relieve passengers of the stress of waiting long hours in queues as a result of the disruptions.
Manager South West Airports and Airport Manager, Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Mrs. Victoria Shinaba explains that the bad experience passengers had a few months ago would soon be a thing of the past as currently some foreign airlines were already integrated into the new system.
“There’s been progress”, Director-General, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu said after inspecting the new technology being installed and commended the efforts by FAAN.
During the unveiling of the FAAN service charter in Lagos, National Coordinator, SERVICOM at the Presidency, Mrs. Nnenna Akajemeli explained that “airport business management is an international thing, there are standards that must be met, doing this is a further step to helping them achieve International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards”.
On the management of queues at airports, General Manager, Customer Service FAAN, Dr. Ebele Okoye says, the self-service kiosks would cut down the number of queues and time limit.
Within the next few days, all foreign airlines are expected to be integrated into the check-in system for seamless facilitation of passengers.
RN