‘Nigerian airlines lose N20bn annually to flight cancellations’

Domestic airlines in Nigeria may be losing as much as N20 billion annually to flight cancellations largely caused by lack of landing aids required for night landing and landing in bad weather, an industry expert has said.

Nogie Meggison, a captain and executive chairman, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), confirmed to BDSUNDAY that there have been skeletal flights in Nigerian airports of the past two weeks as a result of these cancellations.

“About 50 percent of the daily flights have been cancelled because the landing aids are not working and flights cannot operate in low visibility. But in other parts of the world people are flying at zero visibility because they have landing aids at their airports,” Meggison said.

“For three days Enugu flights were cancelled even at 2,000 metres visibility. There are no landing aids, no navigational equipment in some airports. An airline that has not flown for three days has incurred so much loss because you pay the pilots, you refund money to the passengers, you pay your suppliers. Some of the airports do not have runway lights. This is also what is happening to other industries, causing a huge loss of manpower,” he said.

If all necessary equipment were provided at the airports, aviation experts say, aircraft can land at zero visibility, adding that many modern aircraft have global positioning system (GPS) which enables them to land at the lowest visibility. But the failure to provide such critical safety equipment has made it difficult for the airlines to utilise the GPS in the aircraft.

Meanwhile, air travellers in the country are bearing the brunt of these incessant flight delays and cancellations as they are made to lose both time and money. This is as passengers’ demands for compensation often pitch them against erring airlines, in addition to having their plans thrown into disarray.

When BDSUNDAY visited the Murtala Muhammed Airport on Thursday, a regular user of one of the airlines, Stella Din Jacob, narrated her harrowing experience in the hands of officials of a Nigerian carrier when her visiting aged parents were to travel back to Jos.

“From flight delay, it eventually turned to cancellation. Their flight scheduled to depart at noon was delayed till 6pm when we were told that the flight has been cancelled,” Jacob said.

“All efforts to get reasons for the cancellation could not yield fruit as the arrogant and rude officials could only come up with the excuse of fuel scarcity,” she added.

Another frequent traveller who craved anonymity told BDSUNDAY he always prefers flying with international airlines because two domestic airlines have had to cancel his flights on three occasions with no good reason.

“The only reason why I will have to take a domestic airline is if the situation is urgent and if that is the only option at that moment,” he said, adding that ever since he resorted to flying international airlines, there had never been any reason to cancel or delay his flights.

Some Nigerian airlines have also reacted to the ugly situation. On Thursday, March 30, Medview Airline management tendered apologies to its customers for the inconveniences they had experienced as a result of flight delays during the Easter festivity.

Muneer Bankole, managing director of the airline, in a statement said the airline regretted all the embarrassment caused passengers during the Easter rush, attributing the delays to the withdrawal of one of its aircraft in the fleet for unscheduled maintenance.

Bankole noted that it was not in the culture of the airline to subject its esteemed customers to pains caused by the disruption of flights, adding that immediate steps were been taken to regain customers’ confidence in the airline.

“A comprehensive plan is being put in place to provide better and timelier information, more resources for our crew members and improved procedures for handling operational challenges in the future,” he said.

Ado Sanusi, deputy managing director, Arik Air, also blamed the lack of landing aid at most airports in Nigeria for the thousands of flight cancellations each year.

Ola Adebanji, Arik Air spokesperson, told BD SUNDAY that the recent cancellations and delays of Arik flights were as a result of shortage of aviation fuel.

“Arik Air is known to be on time and never disappoints but this situation is beyond our control and it has even gone worse in the past two days. The same situation applies to Abuja, making it difficult getting flights out of Abuja,” he said, while assuring that the situation would get better as Arik was doing its best to ensure things get better and customers are compensated for their losses.

However, Wole Shadare, an industry expert, said there was more to the cancellations than the alleged scarcity of JET A1.

He said that just last week, a similar scenario played out where over 100 passengers were left stranded by a domestic carrier. Kano-bound passengers who had been issued with boarding passes got the shock of their lives when the flight originally scheduled to depart at 3pm was rescheduled for 9pm, he said.

Shadare further said that at exactly 9pm, the carrier announced outright cancellation of the flight. Passengers were furious as some of them left with another carrier for Kano. Others had to go back home or to their hotels, he told BDSUNDAY.

He said it was not as if flights could not be cancelled when there is bad weather or technical problems, but the response of the officials and staff of these domestic airlines when these cancellations happen often leaves a sour taste in the mouths of travellers.

“Passengers’ satisfaction, no doubt, remains the basic impetus that holds the key to the successes of any airline business. When they complain of any unpleasant experience or ill-treatment upon the purchase of a flight ticket(s) until they arrive at their destinations, they are guests of the airline and expect to be accorded due courtesies,” Shadare said.

“Flight cancellations, especially one too many, be it mechanical or otherwise, rude flight attendants, poor in-flight services, delays and leaving passengers in the dark without information as well as numerous other bad deals is a pointer that the airline may well be on its way to extinction if passengers’ complaints are ignored,” he added.

Some industry watchers lament that in the face of all these complaints, the industry regulator, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), does not seem to be doing much to mediate in these issues as they arise. This is in spite of the NCAA regulations that spell out penalties for specific offences by airlines regarding flight delays and cancellations.

But Sam Adurogboye, NCAA spokesperson, told BD SUNDAY that there were several reasons why airlines cancel flights, which could be understandable, adding, however, that it was necessary for the airlines to tender an apology to the passengers affected.

“As a regulatory authority, what we do is that whenever we have complaints coming from the passengers, we advice the airlines on what to do if the situation was beyond their control, and in cases where there is need to apply sanctions, we do not fail to do that,” Adurogboye said.

Ifeoma Okeke