Nigeria’s aviation sector: Overcoming air transport challenges?

Nigeria’s aviation sector: Overcoming air transport challenges?

Stakeholders in aviation sector observe that it has faced previous operation challenges involving public complaints about inadequate infrastructure, unstable prices of aviation fuel, airport runways, without airfield lighting, lack of adequate boarding gates at major airports and high airport charges and taxes, among others.

Concerned Nigerians note that in spite of previous administrations’ policies, the challenges have been telling on the operations of the sector until the present administration appointed an aviator, Sen. Hadi Sirika as Minister of State, Aviation.

To re-position the sector for efficiency, Sirika understands that airports, especially in major cities across the country, were strategic to Nigeria.

He also describes Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, as the gateway to the nation’s capital, the second busiest airport in the country and the fastest growing in passenger traffic in West and Central Africa with an average growth rate of eight per cent.

According to him, the inauguration of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, and Port Harcourt International Airport, in Omagwa, a suburb of Port Harcourt, marks a significant milestone in the implementation of the government’s aviation development road map aimed at overcoming some of the sector’s challenges.

He claimed that the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja alone processed 5.8 million passengers in 2017 while Nigerian airlines had continued to operate, transporting thousands of passengers every month to different domestic destinations.

Similarly, the aviation sector has witnessed some milestones in airport infrastructure, safety and security as well as some policy decisions by the government described as good development by the stakeholders.

Ensuring a seamless plan for overall development of the sector, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration made part-payment of the gratuity of the former workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways.

The former workers alleged that they were not paid any monetary benefits since they were disengaged following the liquidation of the national carrier more than a decade ago.

Some of the 5,968 retirees, who were beneficiaries of the exercise, confirmed that they started receiving payment bank alerts in November 2018, few days after the completion of their verification and data processes.

Apart from this effort, two of the four international terminals co-funded by Export-Import Bank of China and the Federal Government have been completed.

Sirika announced that the remaining two terminals in Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, and Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, would be inaugurated before the first half of 2019.

Buhari said that it was part of his electoral promises to upgrade Nigeria’s transport infrastructure in all geo-political zones of the country.

He said that the opening of the terminals for operations was a significant landmark for international air travelers, observing that not much was done after these airports were built in the 1970s and 1980s to increase their handling capacity.

He said that the administration had, therefore, taken pragmatic approach to ensure that airport terminals meet the minimum international global standards.

In support of this effort, Max Air entered the domestic market in July 2018, thereby increasing the number of domestic airlines in the country from eight to nine before the First Nation airline suspended its operations.

The coming of Max Air has been applauded by stakeholders and air travelers who believe that the airline has become one of the airlines with good-on-time record and reliability.

During the inaugural flight of the airline, Alhaji Bashir Mangal, Chief Executive Officer of the airline, said that the airline would exploit the opportunities that abound in the nation’s aviation industry and contribute its quota to the development of the sector.

Mangal said that Max Air was not new in Nigerian aviation market, explaining that the airline got its Air Operation Certificate more than 10 years ago to transport pilgrims before getting the certificate to begin domestic operation in 2017.

Max Air is currently flying Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Maiduguri, Yola and its base in Kano with more than 20 flights daily, according to Mr Harish Manwani, its Executive Director.

Although the national carrier project was suspended by the Federal Government after its inauguration as Nigeria Air, Sirika promised that the hope on the project was not lost.

He explained further that the Nigeria Air project was not killed but suspended temporarily for strategic reasons, noting that the project had remained at the procurement stage, awaiting approval by the Federal Executive Council.

Sirika also said that that the carrier would be private sector-led and driven with no government involvement in its management.

This assurance notwithstanding, concerned Nigerians believe that cooperation among aviation stakeholders, strengthened by legislation will present the expected virile aviation sector that can showcase the values of the nation.

 

 

A News Analysis by Sumaila Ogbaje, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)