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By Chinelo Obogo, [email protected] 07064781119
Poor airport infrastructure, jet A1 fuel, bird strike, inadequate ground handling equipment, forex scarcity are among the many factors which domestic airlines say are debilitating against them and causing huge revenue loss monthly.
Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), the body of Nigerian scheduled and non-scheduled operators, held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos recently and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, who spoke on their behalf, enumerated their challenges and said unless the Federal Government intervenes and creates a conducive environment for aviation business to thrive, many operators may shut down.
Multiple destinations for foreign airlines
AON objects strongly to the multiple designations being given to foreign airlines into our country especially to Qatar Airways and Ethiopian Airline. It is the belief of the AON that the growth of Nigerian Aviation would be stagnated with this kind of foray into our operations. The capital flight that follows this is unimaginable and it depletes our national treasury and it will also inhibit growth of domestic airlines in the country. These domestic airlines are the ones that provide the jobs and all the foreign airlines in Nigeria put together do not provide 10 per cent of the jobs being provided by the smallest domestic airline in Nigeria.
Multiple designations to foreign airlines is tantamount to loss of jobs that would have been available to Nigerians, it would worsen the precarious situation already being faced by domestic operators. A situation were Qatar and Ethiopia would fly to Kano, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Lagos, is tantamount to domestic operations. This would not augur well for the growth of domestic airlines that provide jobs for the citizens of this country. This kind of situation can lead to some airlines closing shop because of job losses if it is not stopped.
Jet A1 fuel
The price of jet A1 fuel has gone from N190 to N430, that is over 100 per cent increase, yet the lot of the airlines have not improved. Sometimes this product is not even available. We call on the government to help us look into the availability and the pricing of Jet A1 fuel.
Forex
You are all witnesses to what it costs to get dollar. We all know that airlines do not manufacture aircraft parts nor can it be found locally. The business of commercial aviation is done under the premise of the dollar. Yet, we make our money in Naira and everything we need to operate safely comes from abroad. The airlines are groaning under the weight of forex challenges and unless something is done as quickly as possible, airlines may be forced to close shop.
Customs
We thank the Federal Government for the custom duties waiver for imported aircraft and spares. We equally thank President Muhammadu Buhari for removing Value Added Tax (VAT) from imported commercial planes and their spares and ticket fares. This has gone a long way to help our operations and we are grateful. However, the implantation of the law is another thing entirely. We have been having challenges with the clearance of our spares when due and these things lead to delays and cancellations of flights too. A situation where your aircraft is on ground and you import the spare but for weeks. You are unable to clear it. We plead with customs to see to it that the ease of doing business is being engendered.
Delays, cancellations
Airlines have been demonised because of this issue. But we make bold to say that the delays and cancellation of flights is not what any airline enjoys and 98 per cent of the reasons for this is not from the airlines but the airlines are the ones taking the flak. It becomes more worrisome when government officials join the fray to demonise airlines. We decided to come out as a body to tell the world the truth. We have been so demonised that it is affecting our rating internationally and passengers have been emboldened to take laws into their hands, while government officials and security agencies sit aside and watch.
The average Nigerian does not know that bad weather causes delays and cancellations. For instance, if you’re doing Port Hacourt-Abuja, Abuja-Gombe and Gombe has clear skies. But the aircraft coming from Port Harcourt is stuck because of bad weather, airlines lose money when this happens. Nigerians say that this doesn’t happen overseas, but it is not true.
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People say that when the delays take place, airlines don’t communicate with passengers. I am not trying to excuse anyone because we all make mistakes but the fact is that I have been at the airport at the business class lounge where a man was watching pornographic films on his tablet and his flight was announced. The staff came in to call business class passengers and he scolded the guy for disturbing him. The staff informed me of what was happening and I told him to leave the passenger alone and told two passengers who were also around that the man would cause problems that day. About one and half hours later, he started saying Air Peace was delaying his flight. He got up to go to the departure gate, I followed him and took the other two passengers who were witnesses along. At the counter, the lady there told him that his flight had gone over an hour ago. He became irate that the flight was not announced and he slapped the lady. The passengers that I brought who saw that he was watching pornography descended on him and took his tablets to show other passengers. He had to run away from the airport.
Lack of adequate space
If you go to Abuja Airport, you would see that about five airlines are given only two counters. And during the peak period, you have about 10 destinations checking in only through one counter and once a flight is delayed as a result of this, it spirals into the entire day. There is also the issue of lack of adequate markings and space for parking of these planes. In Lagos, you have about 25 planes parking in a space meant for eight aircraft. If you have a 6.30am flight, by 6.10, you must have finished checking in but nowhere to leave because you are surrounded by other aircraft because they have to be removed one after the other and this takes hours. Sometimes your 6.30 flight goes to 8.30 and those two hours lost would build up at the next airport.
Also, most Nigerian airports are sunset airports and they are a huge problem and the situation where these airports close at 6.30pm does not augur well for our operations. On a daily basis, we sacrifice those passengers going to Abuja where you have 24 hours operations to rescue passengers going to the sunset airports and this causes disruptions. Nigerians should know that airlines are not responsible for building airports.
Bird strike
The occurrence of bird strikes have been very worrisome and airlines have lost over$60bILLIn because of it but we have been thankful to God that we have not stopped operations. Air Peace alone suffered 14 bird strikes in 2021 and this year, we have has suffered four already. The other airlines have had several bird strikes and they are losing billions every month. When a bird strike happens, you have to take out your engine and one engine does not cost less than $2.5million and these airlines are taking the flak despite the fact that they are not the ones that are supposed to be chasing wildlife. When you take out your engine and buy a new one, the engine is kept clearing for very long and your capacity is depleted. We call on the government to improve the wildlife chasing equipment.
For one airline to have 14 bird strikes in 10 months is enough to take it out of business. Multiply 14 by $3million for a 737 engine and you will understand how much it is costing us. We had an aircraft that suffered a bird strike in Benin and Air Peace sent it’s E2-195 to rescue the situation only for that to also suffer a bird strike and other airlines can tell you their stories.
On refund losses, this year alone, Air peace has lost N1bn and across board, airlines have lost not less than N20bn because of delays, refunds caused because we have Aircraft on Ground (AOG) coming from the fact we lost an engine. For bird strike alone, the industry lost over $60m in 2021 and the situation is not improving. For the issue of delays, airlines like Aero recorded loses of N527 million in refunds in January alone.
Traffic flow
Most times, airlines are over 10 queuing up to take off with passengers fully boarded and you will be there for hours. We have to ask the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency why we have to waste such time before we take off. When one airline takes off, it takes ‘thy kingdom come’ to get other airlines the clearance to follow. If you go to Heathrow airport, airlines are dropping and taking off every minute, so the air traffic flow control is very poor and it affects the airlines. This also causes delays.
Unruly passengers
Passengers don’t exhibit the kind of unruly behaviour they show to Nigerian airlines when they go abroad or when they board foreign airlines. It is only Nigeria that a passenger would stand in front of a plane and say it would not move until their own flight is announced. It is only in Nigeria that passengers would block the departure gate and say that their own flight must be called first before another. These things happen while the agencies responsible look the other way. But we have resolved that we would never be pushed to the wall to delay safety. If we need to delay you to keep you alive, we would do it.
Ground handling service companies
Many of these companies are ill equipped because sometimes an aircraft lands and there would be no staircase for passengers to disembark. At the Asaba Airport recently, there was one staircase was available. United Nigeria, Airk and Air Peace landed but passengers couldn’t come down from Air Peace until three hours later because there was only one staircase. Some of our passengers almost started taking it out on the airline. A passenger who was waiting for his flight to take off and who saw what was happening, quickly did a video to show the passengers that it was not the fault of the airline. The three hours that was wasted affected all the other flights.
