Passengers and business people moving goods from one State to another have complained in recent times that the goods being moved sometimes spend days at the airport due to low capacity to move them from one airport to another.
BusinessDay had earlier reported that in the last few months, few aircraft have had to feed several passengers on domestic routes as Nigerian airlines struggle with fleet reduction as a result of the high cost of maintenance.
Airlines that have sent their aircraft on maintenance are unable to return them as a result of the skyrocketing costs due to foreign exchange scarcity.
While others have been forced by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to ground their aircraft for inability to send the aircraft for maintenance, BusinessDay’s checks show.
In addition to these, the grounding of Dana Air, a relatively low-cost carrier which had six aircraft in its fleet has also impacted the fleet operating the domestic routes, thereby impacting aircraft bellies that take in cargoes.
“Daily, we have an average of 50 to 60 tonnes but this has been affected by the capacity in the industry. The cargo that we are looking for now is aircraft belly cargo, not the freighter.
“Even though we are talking to a couple of airlines that wants to bring in freighter but the truth is that we can even go up to 80 tonnes in a day, we can’t do that now because of the current capacity,” Remi Jibodu, Bi-Courtney’s Head of Aeronautics/Cargo, and Chief Operating Officer, said during an interview.
Jibodu said Dana Air’s flight suspension has also hugely impacted cargo volumes being moved because Dana’s aircraft had big bellies that could take in a good volume of cargo.
“Arik Air does not operate as many flights as it used to. Aero stopped cargo and Air Peace does not also carry cargo. Even at that, we are still pushing and processing almost 50 tonnes on a daily basis,” Jibodu said.
He hinted that people move their products from their farm storage to the airport terminal so that they can be moved to other states.
Jibodu assured that some of the cargo facilitation challenges would be addressed with the launch of Bi-Courtney’s 25-metric tonne capacity digital cold storage facility to cater for perishables passing through the Murtala Muhammed Airport terminal 2, (MMA2).
Data obtained by BusinessDay from NCAA on Thursday showed that 13 domestic airlines operating in Nigeria put together to operate a total of 91 aircraft. This data includes aircraft that have gone on maintenance.
Sources close to the NCAA told BusinessDay that apart from Dana Air which has been grounded, over half of the 91 aircraft have gone on maintenance, putting a strain on the few operating aircraft.
BusinessDay’s checks show that five years ago when just 10 domestic airlines operated on Nigerian routes, they had over 120 fleets.
Travel experts say the reduction in aircraft has made travel exclusively for the rich and made some airlines a monopoly on certain routes.
“It has been a challenge having to move goods out of the airport in good time because there are no aircraft on the ground,” Favour Ugwuanyi, a businesswoman, told BusinessDay.
Ugwuanyi who deals with mobile phones told BusinessDay that before now, moving goods from Lagos airport to Port Harcourt, Asaba and Owerri takes her an average of two to five hours to get to the destination depending on the flight schedules.
She said that currently, it takes about two to three days for products to reach their final destination because there are either no aircraft to lift the products or the aircraft belly on the ground has reached full capacity.
Tunde Kudirat, another businessman who deals in agro produce told BusinessDay that some of his agro produce in recent times have been sent back because there are no aircraft to lift them.
Kudirat however commended initiatives put up by Bi-Courtney to provide cold room storage would go a long way to help preserve some of the products until there are available aircraft to airlift them.
“I prefer to move my goods through the airport even though it costs more because of the speed at which my customers get them. This key advantage has been eroded by the scarcity of aircraft around the airports,” he said.
There is an average cargo volume an aircraft can carry depending on the aircraft size to give the aircraft a proper balance during take-off, landing and cruising.
For instance, the Boeing 737-800 has a maximum takeoff weight of about 80,000 kg (175,000 lbs). This includes the weight of the plane, which is about 41,000 kg (90,000 lbs), and the weight of the fuel which is about 18,000 kg (40,000 lbs). This leaves about 20,000 kg (45,000 lbs) for passengers, cargo, and crew.
Seyi Adewale, the chief executive officer of Mainstream Cargo Limited, told BusinessDay that cargoes being moved through the airports include personal Items or effects; perishables, company documents or parcels that include many MDAs, embassies & diplomatic missions; and transhipment that have their final destinations outside Lagos in the case of imports or the reverse for exports.
Adewale said another category may include special cargoes that may not be reasonable to transport via road such as ICT gadgets or equipment.
He explained that the impact of e-commerce is easily noticeable with the movement of clothes, shoes, wigs, weave-on, kilishi, pharmaceuticals medical gadgets etc that potentially could be also tagged as personal effects.
He said the current aircraft shortage challenge reveals the ‘frailties and underbelly’ of our aviation sector.
“It further reveals that our present operating environment does not favour FDI in the aviation sector. For example, how many returns can a local operator assure a foreign investor timely set with specific performance dates, possibly monthly or quarterly?
“The exchange rate conversion for funds repatriation does not really favour the external investor because sourcing FX can be challenging,” Adewale said.
He said that as freight forwarding and clearing companies, they are faced with three primary challenges.
“First, the capacity for customers to pay associate, emerging or rapidly increasing airline rates is tested with lots of talking and negotiating back and forth with the customer. Second, the cargo hold or spaces are very limited and very competitive.
“Third, any time lag between an airline offer and actual sale or pickup is punitive to the forwarder and also to the customer depending on the type of agreement reached on all sides. The airlines now execute shorter validity periods, understandably though.
“The potential implication of this is that the ‘niceties’ air freight offers are gradually diminishing because operational efficiency is being lost inclusive of its attractiveness, speed of service, fast, timely, and efficiency,” he explained.
As part of the ways to address the current fleet depletion challenge, he said for perishables, the airports and handling companies need to be creative, and innovative, and develop their capabilities to limit the bridges, challenges, or difficulties facing the airlines.
This, he said, can also be an added revenue stream or source in the short to medium term that will surely compensate for their moderate (additional) infrastructure investment.
