Eviction will start in Feb: NAC

Business
Rex Kiponge

THE National Airports Corporation’s (NAC) eviction exercise around Jackson Airport in Port Moresby will take place next month, managing director and chief executive officer Rex Kiponge says.
Kiponge said the exercise was a strategic move for NAC to start increasing its revenue base.
He said Kennedy estate properties and business Leon Hardware would not be evicted.
He said this month would be the grace period.
“NAC needs support from the Government on the eviction exercise. We have given another month of January as a grace period. Actual eviction will take place in February,” he said.
“Leon Hardware business is inside the airside under a 40-year lease period given by the previous management.
“For Kennedy Estate, I believe the land was acquired through Lands Department and done under the previous management.”
Kiponge said the NAC needed to start generating its own revenue and recouping and revitalising its assets was in line with that aim.
“I can’t sit and keep asking the government to give us money to run NAC,” he said.
“NAC has huge potential to generate our own revenue to sustain the business, and it is time we make critical and tough decisions for the interest of the business.
“The investment in the landside on non-aeronautical business is a shift given the experiences of Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
“NAC’s main revenue streams are from aeronautical and non-aeronautical streams, of which 80 per cent revenue from aero and 20 per cent from non-aero.
“Under the landside investment programme will see increase revenue from land base so that in the future if there is another pandemic affecting airside business (aero), non-aero will still support the airport business.
“All these moves are in support of our current policy under the new management ‘Converting airports from a point of transit to point of destination’ where people will go to airport to do other businesses instead of going to the airport to catch flights only.”