While awaiting the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to give approval for the to commence regional flight operations in Nigeria, analysts say the move will generate more revenue and employment for erstwhile local airlines and the aviation industry.
They say it will further encourage the establishment of critical maintenance infrastructure such as hangars and create more jobs for pilots, cabin crew, engineers and technicians among others.
Furthermore, it will create new slots for domestic and foreign airlines to expand operations, coming at a period when the capacity at the international airport (MM1) is already used up.
There is a proposal before the NCAA to allow erstwhile local airlines to carry out their regional operations from MMA2. This follows forays over the years by Nigeria’s domestic airlines into the West African sub-region as opportunities opened up.
The opportunities are sprouting from growing sub-regional business and liesure travel, as well as the demise of some regional airlines such as the Nigeria Airways, which serviced the region.
One glaring statistic is that there are an estimated 70,000 Nigerian students study in tertiary institutions in neighbouring Ghana alone.
Many of these come from middle and upper class families who can afford air travel.
According to Olusegun Awolowo, CEO, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC),Nigeria currently exports tobacco products, plastics and rubber footwear, noodles and biscuits, polybags, milk products, iron and steel, insecticides, beverages, tomato paste and fruit juices to the top 10 African countries, which include Ghana, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso. Others are Guinea, Mali, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Some of these products and the merchants transport by air.
Nigeria’s topmost export products to these countries are cocoa and rubber. Much of the trade between Nigeria and West Africa is informal, despite that the official trade among West African countries is only 12 percent.
Nigeria’s export to the 15 countries of the Economic Community of West African Countries in 2014 stood at $350.8 million.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay, Christophe Penninck, CEO, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Ltd said the commencement of regional flights from MMA2 will help develop the nation’s aviation sector, adding that Aero Contractors which started operations 50 years back has been faced with stunted development as a result of the harsh operating environment.
“We are giving the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) an avenue to develop local airlines. It is a long chain and this will make passengers see there is something better,” said Penninck.
“The benefit is that we will have an airport terminal that is performing and giving a better image to people arriving in Nigeria. The capacity at the international airport is already reached, the airport is completely choked. So, we are giving extra capacity for international airlines to come and operate in Nigeria.
The agreement that we have with the Federal Government is limiting us to and from African destinations,” he added.
Speaking on the agreement with FAAN on the commencement of regional flights, Penninck said Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Ltd had a sound agreement with the Federal Government and with FAAN that was signed on the 25th of May of 2015 that is allowing them operate regional flights out of MMA2.
He added that they are waiting for the NCAA to agree that they have met all the legal, security and facilitation requirements and that a lot of money has been invested in MMA2, while he is confident the deal will be signed off very soon.
Nigerian airlines will see a decline in profits this year, mainly due to forex restrictions, analysts forecast.
This compelled airlines to introduce promos and discount fares to stimulate demand.
“There was excess capacity and lower demand. The load factor has been 80 percent, most of which is the price-sensitive back-of-the-cabin class,” said Bismarck Rewane an economist and CEO of consulting firm Financial Derivatives, in a Dec. 08, Presentation.
“Domestic airlines will continue to face crisis. Airports will be concessioned.”
Tukur Mohammed, former Presidential Adviser on Aviation and former MD of Chachangi Airlines, said the current minister of Aviation should assist private investors to generate more revenue for the Nigerian government, adding that the commencement of regional flights from MMA2 is one way of doing that.
Mohammed added, “We need to sit down and look at the issue clearly. By the time the current government looks at all these problems, the implication is that the passengers will have value for their money and revenue will be generated.”
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) recently called a meeting on the matter, due to plans by aviation unions to protest the planned regional flights by one of its concessionaires Bi-Courtney Aviation (BASL) from the MMA2.
An NCAA spokesman had given the modalities for the commencement of operations from MMA2 to include the avilability and readiness of all the paraphernalia of an international airport terminal facility, including agencies such as the immigrations, customs, NDLEA, Plant Quarantine, and AVSEC.
However, an aviation source told BusinessDay that MMA2 is in an advanced stage of getting the approval as it has met most of the requirements.
Penninck, the CEO of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services, highlighted further benefits of having MMA2 conduct regional flight operations. They include ease of flights for passengers, and possibility of attracting new airlines to the country.
“Aero, Dana and Medview are operating and they are Nigerian airlines, they operate from Ghana and bring passengers into Lagos, those passengers have to go through the roads and then connect to the domestic flights.
“With MMA2, passengers can connect in the same terminal, which means they are safe on time, they are safe on money. Extra capacity means we can also succeed in getting other carriers to fly into Nigeria in the bigger terminal.”
Nigeria has ten domestic airlines which provide 6,538 seats to the traveling public daily. The airlines include Arik Air, Medview, Aero, First Nation, Discovery Air, Air Peace, Azman Air and Overland.
IFEOMA OKEKE
