this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . september 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message federal airport authority of nigeria industry transport founded 1935 citation needed headquarters murtala muhammed international airport ikeja lagos state nigeria key people chief ibitimi banigu chairman products airport operations and services website http www.faannigeria.org federal airport authority of nigeria faan is a service organization statutorily charged to manage all commercial airports in nigeria and provide service to both passenger and cargo airlines . generally to create conditions for the development in the most economic and efficient manner of air transport and the services connected with it . the agency has its head office on the grounds of murtala muhammed international airport in ikeja lagos state . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 maintenance 1.2 research 1.3 logistics 2 operations 2.1 airports 3 references 4 external links history edit civil aviation in nigeria is a spin off of the british colonial rule . but above all else it is a product of a mere accident of history dating back to 1925 in the unlikeliest of places the ancient walled city of kano . sometime in july of that year the northern city was gripped by a tense stand off between the residents and the colonial government officials . the british government at the time was maintaining an active royal air force raf base in khartoum sudan . on sensing the trouble in kano london swiftly signalled the commanding officer of the khartoum raf squadron instructing him to fly to the northern nigerian city and report on the situation . flying a bristol fighter the pilot made a breath taking but safe landing on the horse race course in kano thus going down in history as the first recorded aviation activity in nigeria . without air routes maps or radio communications the flight was regarded as a particularly hazardous operation . so alarmed were officials that an idea was mooted that if khartoum kano was ever to be made an air routes it would be necessary to have emergency landing grounds every 20 miles of the way . subsequent flights were to be originated from cairo egypt where the raf also had a base . the landings were so spectacular that one kano resident was moved to paint the scene the water colour picture was later acquired by the government . the raf operations were later to become an annual event with frequency and route extended to cover maiduguri . the earliest known commercial aviation activity in nigeria is credited to one gentle man bud carpenter who owned the earliest type of the light aircraft de havilland moth . records show that he frequently undertook high risk flights between kano and lagos using the rail tracks as his guide and piling up extra distance in the process . in the early 1930s an enterprising pilot carried a few fare paying passengers in a seaplane between lagos and warri . with the continuation of the annual rplf flights aviation activities in nigeria became quite considerable creating the need for aerodromes . consequently a representative of the air ministry in london visited nigeria to inspect what could then be appropriately described as landing grounds . sites were selected at maiduguri oshogbo lagos minna kano and kaduna . wing commander e. h. coleman one of the earliest observers of the evolution of civil aviation in nigeria described the aerodromes thus it must be remembered however that what was called an aerodrome in those days would by no means meet requirements for even some of the small aeroplanes of modern times . in the early days it was considered necessary to construct several runways oriented in varying directions to avoid cross wind landings and take offs as the older type of tail wheel aircraft was more prone to swing than the modern nose wheel types . in 1935 the operations of the raf were replaced by those of the imperial airways that flew regular airmail and passengers from london to nigeria . these services thus pioneered commercial international operations in nigeria although it was not until 1936 that commercial aviation actually came to nigeria . the imperial airways the forerunner of the british overseas airways corporation boac operated large four engined aeroplanes known as the hannibal class or the handley on the nile route from cairo to kisumu uganda . towards the end of 1936 a once weekly service was introduced and another route khartoum kano lagos flight which took seven days was operated with a relatively small four engined aircraft de havilland 86 one of the dh 86 s well known passengers was sir bernard bourdillon who flew on the first ever commercial flight from lagos . citation needed in nigeria early pilots were brave citation needed and had to weather the harsh harmattan clarification needed and rainy conditions . but there was one peculiar emergency landing near maiduguri in 1937 . engineers were promptly despatched from kano . they arrived a day later on horseback with their tool kits . after some repairs the aircraft was flown out and again placed in service records show that it usually took a whole day to fly from kano to lagos in a dh8 considering its early technology and en route refuelling stops . waac was charged to develop air services in and between west african territories . the airline began services with a six seater de havilland dove aircraft . its nigerian domestic services were operated with the dove while the west coast services were operated with bristol wayfarers . the control and administration of civil aviation were vested in the directorates of public works of these countries who applied united kingdom colonial air navigator orders as their legislative authority . on attaining independence in 1957 ghana pulled out of the airline company and in august 1958 the nigerian government in partnership with boac and elder dempster lines formed the west african airways corporation nigeria limited which would later metamophorse into today s nigeria airways . this single historic move heralded the genesis of the airline industry in nigeria . maintenance edit when dealing with the complete range of complex systems in use for safety of air traffic services in the environment every minute detail is taken into account in planning for maintenance infrastructures and logistic support . the following are maintenance infrastructure and logistic support services necessary for efficient maintenance services that faan provides external internal equipment monitoring devices central maintenance workshop laboratory other logistic support systems external internal equipment monitoring devices currently federal airports authority of nigeria equipment facility status and failure information are received through service operator users reports and many other types of diverse monitoring devices however with the determination of the authority to improve services more elaborate monitoring devices aimed at immediate detection of equipment facility failures are now envisaged to cope with the increasing sophistication of various systems . the device with visual display in the equipment room will indicate the configuration of all associated equipment in real time research edit this is a special dedicated workshop laboratory where specific system maintenance is carried out to component level . the maintenance repairs modification etc. of all analogue units are carried out with conventional measuring apparatus such as traditional multi meters generators oscilloscopes etc. the performance of these test instruments is checked and re calibration is carried out every two years . logistics edit the procurement proper storage and easy retrieval of spare parts are a primary responsibility of the stores unit of the federal airports authority of nigeria . in view of the very large volume of spare parts stocked for every system there are plans to computerize this sector in order to enhance performance . other vital factors affecting faan s maintenance capabilities include the efficiency of public utilities like the national electric power authority nepa public power supply the nigerian telecommunication nitel and the various water boards . operations edit airports edit owned and operated by faan nnamdi azikiwe international airport mallam aminu kano international airport murtala muhammed international airport port harcourt international airport kaduna airport maiduguri international airport yakubu gowon airport yola airport sadiq abubakar iii international airport margaret ekpo international airport akanu ibiam international airport sam mbakwe international cargo airport ibadan airport references edit contact information . federal airports authority of nigeria . retrieved on 8 september 2010 . external links edit nigeria portal aviation portal official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title federal airports authority of nigeria & oldid 700442945 categories airports in nigeriaairports in lagosorganisations based in lagoshidden categories use dmy dates from july 2013articles needing additional references from september 2010all articles needing additional referencesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from august 2009wikipedia articles needing clarification from august 2009 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable 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