Five major events that shaped aviation sector in Q1, 2017

Five major events characterised the aviation industry in the last four months of the year, some of which made it lose its verve in terms passenger traffic, while others points to an entirely new direction for the sector.

These major events include the closure of Abuja airport for comprehensive rehabilitation of its runway, the relocation of flight operations to Kaduna, the takeover of Arik Air by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), constant cancellation of flights over poor navigational aids and the inspection of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

On the 8th of March, 2017, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, the second busiest airport in Nigeria was closed down for major repair of its runway and Kaduna airport was made the alternate airport for diversion of flights.

During this period, foreign airlines refused to go to Kaduna airport, citing insecurity and logistics reasons, a situation that also made some international passengers suspend their travel plans pending when the Abuja airport will re-open.

BusinessDay’s checks show that during this period, domestic airlines which had an average seat capacity of 150 airlifted an average of 100 passengers on each flight which is far below what they recorded on the Lagos-Abuja route but despite the loss, the airlines agreed that what was being done was critically important for safety.

During these six weeks, Kaduna airport experienced flurry of activities, all domestic airlines and few foreign airlines rescheduled their operations to Kaduna to cater for the influx of passengers.

Kaduna airport which usually received local flights of not more than a hundred passengers daily sprang to life automatically and within a space of 11days, the Kaduna airport broke a record in passenger traffic.

According to data submitted to the Presidency by the Federal Government Coordinating Committee overseeing the management of the Airport repair, closure and relocation, more than 43,000 passengers passed through the Kaduna Airport, more than the 41,000 passengers it recorded in the entire first quarter of 2015, and the 21,000 in the first quarter of 2016.

Experts and stakeholders raised doubts over the promise of Hadi Sirika, the Minister of State for Aviation to complete the repair the airport within six weeks but against all odds, at exactly six weeks, the minister delivered on his promise, thereby reawakening a major confidence booster for the air transport sector.

Another notable action in the first quarter of 2017 was the takeover of Arik Air by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) as a result of the inability of the airline to service its debts.

Affidavit deposed to by Oluseye Opasanya, the receiver manager of Arik Air, before the federal high court in Lagos reveal that Arik Air owes N387billion.

Jude Nwauzor, spokesman of AMCON said with this huge debt, there was no way the carrier could have remained profitable without the takeover of the business by the intervention agency.

This is just as AMCON said it has injected over N1.5 billion into the troubled carrier since it took over on February 8, 2017.

Nwauzor said the airline was indebted to many institutions, some of which includes insurance companies, aviation agencies, aircraft lessors, and other creditors for services rendered without payment.

As a result of these myriads of issues, since after the takeover, the new management of the airline seems to be at crossroads about how to turn the airline around amid the challenges of paucity of funds and low passenger traffic occasioned by the current recession.

The workers are also in a dilemma about tomorrow, while government is yet to make definite pronouncement on the future of the airline.

One of the worries of Nigerian airlines is how they would face another bout of weather challenges next December, when the Harmattan haze will obstruct flights; at the time of peak flight operation, when travellers for the Yuletide troop to the airports. Last December till January this year, airlines said they lost over N20 billion within two weeks because of the Harmattan haze.

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, NAMA 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.

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.

“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.

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 N6billion and $27million 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,” he added.

On the airport inspection, almost two weeks before the Abuja airport was closed for runway repairs, Yemi Osinbajo the Vice President, had visited the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos to appraise the facilities, especially those facilities that enhance passenger facilitation and to see how visa at arrival process, which the Nigerian Immigration Service had just introduced, worked.

At the end of his tour, Osinbajo noted that a lot needs to be done to upgrade the airport. The Minister also swung into action in implementing some of the recommendations made by the vice president.

Ifeoma Okeke