Immediate past Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka has stated operations at Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, may be crippled except the regulatory body sources for funds to close its over N30 billion funding gap in its pension liabilities.

According to Chidoka, if the huge debts the organization is being owed by airlines are not retrieved, it may go bankrupt.

He said the N30 billion is an accumulation from funding gaps when workers of the authority switched over from the old pension system to the contributory scheme.

The former Minister stressed that until something is done by either borrowing or other interventions, the authority will be weighed down by the financial challenge.

Chidoka said as a way out, it might become necessary to set up airport management companies from FAAN to prepare it for eventual privatization.