Aircraft utilisation low in Nigeria amid poor landing aids, low purchasing power

Poor landing aids across Nigerian airports and low purchasing power of Nigerians are causing domestic airlines to lose huge sums of money from low utilisation of their aircraft, experts tell BusinessDay.
BusinessDay’s checks show that an average functional aircraft can operate for 15 to 18 hours daily, but Nigerian airlines fly an average of only 5 hours.
“Most of the airports in Nigeria close by 6pm to 7pm, whereas airlines should be able to operate their aircraft for at least 18 hours a day. This is one of the problems making their operations not very profitable, because if they can fly from 5am in the morning till 3pm the next morning and use the few remaining hours to do maintenance, then airline operations will be very profitable,” Dung Rwang Pam, Nigeria’s Aviation Safety Initiative (NASI) coordinator, says.
Pam explains that some of the landing aids are absent at most of the country’s airports include landing lights, the taxi way light to show airlines where the centre line and the edge of the runway is, and the apron, where airlines can taxi their aircraft.
He says the lack of these instruments reduces the utilisation of the aircraft, adding that whether airlines use their aircraft or not, every 18 months, they have to pay for compulsory C check maintenance for their aircraft.
“About seven domestic operational airlines make less than 300 flights to less than 10 airports daily; whereas, if each can make just three return flights or six flights daily to 20 of the 26 airports, that would be about 600 daily flights for a whole day.
“There are about 26 airports, 18 of them are federal, about eight of them are owned by states and private operators, but less than 10 of these airports are regularly operated. The airports with operational night landing aids are most likely the five international airports in Nigeria,” John Ojikutu, chief executive of Centurion Securities, says.
Further checks show that Nigeria is losing N13.6 billion annually to poor navigational aids as a result of the failure of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) to provide adequate aids required for night landing.
Experts have said that with the economic activities around Akure, Asaba, Calabar, Ilorin, Jalingo, Kano, Makurdi, Minna, Owerri and Uyo, Nigeria may be losing N37.5 million daily and N13.6 billion annually because there are no landing aids around these airports to enable them operate night flights.
Four years ago, the federal government designated these states as choice location for its airlines’ expansion drive which enables private domestic carriers use smaller short hop aircraft from one state in the country to another, many of them turboprop (propeller driven), which are fuel efficient and enhance margins.
A turboprop jet has an average of 75 seats and therefore can carry an average of 150 passengers on a return flight. Experts say that if the navigational aids are in good shape or present at these airports, an average of number of one jet can fly in and out of these states on a daily basis.
BusinessDay’s checks show that passengers pay an average of N25,000 for tickets to these states. Therefore a return flight in these ten states will cost airlines a sum of N37.5 million daily and N13.6 billion annually.
Nogie Meggison, President, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) also hinted that poor navigational and landing aids limits operations to daylight operation for most Nigerian airports.
Meggison said that 48 years ago, on December 28, 1968, the first aircraft operated at CAT lll and landed in zero visibility at Heathrow Airport, yet Nigeria was unable to land aircraft with visibility of about 800m.
“It is rather shameful that today in the 21st century, we are still talking of operating at CAT l and unable to land at 800m at our airports.”
Among the top African airports, O. R. Tambo International Airport Johannesburg processes a total 20.7million passengers annually, Cairo International Airport, Egypt processes 16.5million passengers, Cape Town International Airport, Cape Town processes 10million passengers, Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa 8.7million passengers, while Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos the most busiest airport in Nigeria processes less than 6.5million passengers yearly.
Tayo Ojuri, is an industry expert and Chief Executive Officer, Aglo Limited, an aviation support service said that Nigeria should process more than 15million passengers annually considering its huge potentials as a country blessed with a natural geographic location at the centre of Africa (4.30hrs to most parts of Africa); with most of its airport at approximately sea level, being the 6th largest producer of crude oil (JetA1), and a human population of 190 million.
Ojuri said as a result of low purchasing power, not many who will want to fly can fly, adding that aviation is a function of disposable income and the people that travel in Nigeria are more of a travel driven by Business, especially for domestic travel.