Mohamed Lahbib Zahana: Allocating 10 billion dinars to enhance safety and security at airports – Algerian Dialogue

Transport Minister Mohamed Lahbib Zahana revealed this Saturday in Tipaza that the sector has allocated a financial envelope estimated at 10 billion dinars to enhance safety and security at airports and improve services for the benefit of travelers.
The minister said in the opening session of a national meeting to evaluate air transport activity that his ministerial departments gave priority to enhancing safety and security at airports by registering an investment program in the sectoral budget for the year 2023 exceeding 10 billion dinars to implement projects that contribute to making Algeria “an international transit center and a link between countries.” Africa and the world in order to raise the level of airport security to the international standards applicable in the field.”

The projects include providing all airports with thermal camera surveillance systems and supporting them with modern scanners that comply with international standards approved in this field, especially with regard to detecting explosives, which will be acquired through national and international tenders.

The registered projects include strengthening and digitizing video surveillance systems at many airports, rehabilitating the external wall and the path of guard patrols in the airport space, completing and rehabilitating water supply networks, sewage networks, wells, water tanks, as well as firefighting networks at airports, as well as recording studies to protect the Chlef and El-Beidh airports from the risk of floods. .

The Minister believes that keeping pace with the rapid development in the field of air transport requires the expansion of some airport structures, and therefore the ministerial departments of the sector have registered studies to expand the air terminals of the airports of Tamanrasset, Oran, and Tebessa, and to prepare Bordj Badji Mokhtar Airport, in addition to registering a program to strengthen the airline’s aircraft fleet. Air Algeria.

The Minister also stressed the importance of improving the quality of services provided to citizens at airports, pointing out that he recorded during the field visits he conducted through airports “many shortcomings related to the performance and management of some facilities,” such as “weak coordination between airport management institutions, air transport companies, and other actors.” At airports,” according to him, “negatively affects the quality of services provided” to citizens.

The Minister stressed the need to implement a number of standards to overcome this, including “reducing the processing time for departing passengers’ flights at the airport level, reducing the time for handing luggage to arriving passengers, improving guidance and information at the airport, as well as providing amenities such as seating chairs, prayer halls, and means of taking care of people with special needs.” And the cleanliness of places and bathrooms, and also reviewing the price ceiling for consumables applied at airports.”

Mr. Zahana stressed that the institutions concerned with registered projects should launch and complete the latter within the specified deadlines, also calling on air transport officials to pay attention to the training of human resources and the National Civil Aviation Agency to “play the role of coordination with the various actors in the field of air transport and ensure the implementation of Algeria’s obligations nationally and “Internationally.”

He also stressed the need to work to improve the financial situation of institutions active in the field of air transport by generalizing the use of information and communication technologies in various air transport activities, such as booking tickets, registering at airports, handling passenger baggage, and media, adding that achieving all the established goals will not be possible except with the combined efforts of all. Players in the air transport sector.

On the other hand, Mr. Zahana reported that the country’s thirty-six (36) airports recorded about 15.4 million passengers in 2023, including 6.7 million on the domestic network and the rest on the international network, exceeding the number recorded before the Covid-19 pandemic, which was estimated in 2019 by 14.3 million.

Algiers Airport alone recorded passenger traffic estimated at 8 million, including 5.6 million on the international network.

In another context, the Minister revealed that 12 airports across the country have been recruited to transport pilgrims to perform Hajj rituals for the upcoming season, adding that preparations are also underway to receive visitors and tourists during the upcoming summer season.

For reference, various active officials in the sector participated in the national evaluation meeting for the air transport sector, which was hosted by the Higher School of the Navy in Bou Ismail, and the work of the meeting continued in a closed session.