Airlines lose huge revenues to avoidable flight cancellations

Domestic airlines operating in the country in the past one week have lost huge revenues as a result of avoidable incessant flight delays and cancellations caused by the deplorable sate of navigational aids at the airports around the country.

This is also as aviation fuel scarcity continues to affect the scheduled flight operations of airlines causing them to delay and cancel flights.

BusinessDay’s findings show that Arik Air’s New York flight was cancelled on December 27 due to bad weather and on the following day the passengers, who would have travelled resolved and blocked the airline’s counters at the International Terminal of Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.

Also from 25th till 27th of December 2016, MMA in Lagos operated skeletal flights as a result of the weather. During the period the weather was hazy, no airline could fly and passengers were delayed with colossal loss of revenue to the operators.

Specifically, BusinessDay gathered that domestic airlines generate an average of N2 billion daily from ticket sales, amounting to N6billion in the three days. Experts say not less than 50percent of revenues were lost from the development.

The implication is that the sector may have lost not less than N3 billion in the last three days that the weather condition worsened.

While some experts have pointed accusing fingers at the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, (NAMA) for its failure in upgrading the navigation aids at major airports across Nigeria, others say the airlines do not have aircraft fitted with facilities to align with equipment on ground to aid landing and take-off during harmattan period.

Be that as it may, if both the airlines and NAMA had performed their duties optimally in providing all required to cushion the effects of harmattan, the flight cancellations and delays would have been avoided, experts also said.

A Dana air flight that departed Abuja at 10am on 27th of December could not land in Lagos and had to return to Abuja until 6pm before flying back again still leaving about 500 to 600 passengers to various destinations stranded at the airport.

Most international and local flights had to be diverted to Cotounu on 27th of December. The issue of the harmattan haze is a yearly seasonal occurrence as Nigeria has mainly Raining (Thunderstorms) and Dry Seasons (Harmattan).

But airline officials explained that the airlines hoped and waited for improvement in weather reports as the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) reeled out weather reports intermittently.

Before now, airlines have continued to complain that the airport landing systems, night lighting aids, runway lighting and other radio signals to aid 24 hours aviation at all Nigerian airports made flying in the Nigerian airspace virtually impossible during this harmattan season.

Nogie Meggison, the chairman of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), explained that in 1968, exactly forty eight years ago, the first aircraft operated at CAT lll and landed in zero (0) visibility at Heathrow airport, yet Nigeria is unable to land aircraft with visibility of about 800m.

“This is very unfair to operators who cannot charge passengers for the extra cost the airline has to bear on return or cancelled flights and we have to feed and lodge them in a hotel.

“NAMA and the Federal Airports Authority Nigeria, (FAAN) need to be more responsible to ensure that our airports are equipped with the right landing aids to allow 24hours operations in any weather condition,” he stressed.

John Ojikutu, Secretary-General, Aviation Round Table and Former Commandant at Lagos Airport said that NAMA needs to ensure that its approach and landing aids are calibrated on time to meet the challenges of the inclement weather that often characterises the harmattan.

NAMA in response said that the implementation of Performance Base Navigational (PBN) approaches in 20 airports is also a system meant to aid approach in a season like this but that it was left for airlines to get the required equipment fitted into their aircraft and train their crew to take advantage of this.

Emmanuel Anasi, acting managing director of NAMA said that it would have been easy to get some other facilities to improve air navigation if not for the gargantuan indebtedness of airlines to the agency to the tune of N6b and $27m dollars respectively.

Anasi disclosed that all the Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) were working, while the agency has implemented the Performance Base Navigation, (PBN) approaches in 20 airports.

According to him, the PBN has been implemented in four major airports of Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano in 2012 adding, that the agency has standard arrival route, standards instrument departure route for the four airports, making it the first in Africa to develop it.

Anasi said these procedures were designed to take advantage of advanced system to handle aircraft fitted with the capability of flying PBN.

“Onus lies on our domestic operators to get the required equipment on board to be able to fly PBN and also to train flight crew to also fly these procedures and also get NCAA approval to fly these procedures, the rules in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority; (NCAA) requires flight crew training, aircraft equipment and then a flight manual.

“In poor visibility operation like this, airlines that are equipped with this capacity can take advantage of that,” he added.

On the aviation fuel scarcity, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) promise to supply 45million litres of aviation fuel to forestall scarcity is currently being hindered as a result of the airline’s inability to pay for the product.

Beyond just the hazy weather, the scarcity is also contributing to the incessant flight delays and cancellations across airports in the country, BusinessDay’s findings show.

On the alleged scarcity of Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK) which is purportedly responsible for the hardship being experienced in the aviation sector, Maikanti Baru, group managing director, clarified that NNPC had taken steps to ensure adequate supply of the product with the importation of over 45 million litres.

Baru however explained that the challenge had more to do with the inability of airlines to pay for the product upon the introduction of a cash-and-carry policy by marketers on account of the huge amount they were being owed by the airlines.

The inability of airlines to buy aviation fuel has continued to result in incessant flight delays and cancellations, especially during the yuletide season, disrupting activities of passengers and leaving many stranded.

However, Obuke Oyibotha, Media Consultant to Med-View airline told BusinessDay that ever since the NNPC promised to supply the product, up till now, the airlines have not been able to access the product.

IFEOMA OKEKE