Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA), are founded on the principle of reciprocity. It is a deal that enables a country’s airlines to enjoy equal leverage, in terms of flight operations, in countries with which their home country has an air agreement.
Nigeria signed a Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA), with the Republic of India on January 14 this year. It stipulates that passengers being processed from Nigeria would enjoy direct flight to India as a result of the agreement.
As at 2018, trade volume between Nigeria and India hit $12billion driven primarily by medical tourism and crude oil. This agreement was therefore signed to facilitate easy movement of people, goods and services between the two countries.
It is in the light of these Nigeria needs to find out what went wrong with previous air agreements it signed with other countries and why they are not delivering value before it signs more.
No matter how juicy a BASA agreement may seem between two countries, these agreements must be signed on the basis of reciprocity or else the country on the other end may be shooting itself on the foot.
Domestic airlines operating in Nigeria have continued to lose out in revenue and flight frequencies, while foreign airlines are increasing and opening more routes in Nigeria after BASA with some countries.
The Single African Air Transport Market, (SAATM) which is part of the BASA agreements is a flagship project of AU Agenda 2063, which aspires to create a single unified air transport market in Africa, liberalise civil aviation in Africa, and motivate the continent’s economic integration agenda.
The agreement has seen more foreign airlines such as Sudanese airlines, Ethiopian airlines, RwandAir, Emirates open more routes and increase frequencies in Nigeria, while Nigeria airlines suspend operations into foreign countries.
Nigeria currently has 24 foreign airlines operating in the country and most operate in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano, while only two Nigerian carriers, Arik and AirPeace currently flies into or from West African countries.
Few months ago, the Federal Government approved two Sudanese airlines – Badr Airlines and Tarco Airways to operate into Kano. The two airlines are currently operating two flights weekly from Khartoum, Sudan to Kano.
Ethiopian Airlines has gradually evolved to become a Nigerian indigenous carrier as it presently flies to four destinations in the country from its base in Addis Ababa.
The East African carrier operates scheduled flight operations to Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos; the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja, Aminu Kano International Airport, AKIA, Kano and recently, Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu with over 21 frequencies weekly.
Apart from Ethiopian Airlines, other foreign airlines like RwandAir, British Airways, Etihad, Air France/KLM, Egypt Air, Emirates and South African Airways among others have joined the bandwagon of carriers that operate multiple entries into Nigeria regularly without reciprocity from any of the nation’s carriers.
On the other hand, Medview, a Nigerian carrier which flew into Dubai and London has suspended operations into these countries because the airline did not have adequate operational aircraft to sustain the routes.
Arik Air which flew London, Johannesburg-South Africa and almost all countries in West and Central Africa suspended operations into these countries because of its huge debt to its foreign partners.
AirPeace, is still in the process of getting certifications from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the countries it intends to fly into.
While foreign countries have continued to burden Nigerian carriers with obnoxious demands, making it almost impossible for domestic airlines to operate, federal government continues to give more frequencies to foreign airlines.
Domestic carriers say this agreement is slowly killing their operations and benefiting the foreign carriers.
IFEOMA OKEKE
