BASA open doors for more African airlines to serve Nigeria

The advantages present in the utilisation of Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) and well as the need to address poor flight connectivity between Nigeria and other African countries have seen more African airlines commence flights into Nigeria.

Uganda Airlines few weeks ago commenced flights to Nigeria and now Air Algeria is preparing to start operations in Nigeria.

Also, few weeks ago, Viva jets an indigenous jet operator in Nigeria launched services to commence private jet operations in African countries specifically.

Stakeholders have said there are plans by more African airlines to pitch tent in Nigeria, which has continued to present itself as an attractive market.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Africa has the lowest air connectivity in the world. Among the 1,431 pairs of African Union countries, just 19 percent has significant direct service (at least once a week annually). Out of these, 35 percent has daily or more frequent service, while only 13 percent has service twice daily or more.

Read alsoAfrican airlines represent only 2.1% of global passenger traffic – IATA

Africa’s air services are poorly connected, often necessitating multi-day journeys or flights via other continents to reach destinations within Africa. To address the bottlenecks, the African Union (AU) launched the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) in 2018 towards creating a single Africa’s air transport market that promotes economic integration and air connectivity.

Sadly, its slow implementation stifles liberalisation of air transport markets in Africa. Only 34 out of 54 African countries have signed up to the SAATM.

SAATM which Nigeria is a signatory to has seen African airlines in recent times pitch tent in Nigeria, in view to take advantage of Nigeria’s geographical location, youthful population and opportunities inherent in full implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Seyi Adewale, chief executive officer – Mainstream Cargo Limited said Nigeria has always been an attractive market, place, and destination point in Africa with a vibrant youth population that is up to 65-70 percent of the estimated 220 million population size.

Adewale said these youths are rapidly mobile, without prejudices of older adults, and eager for cross-border interactions, collaborations, and business opportunities or propositions.

He said importantly too, is the emerging opportunities inherent in the full implementation of AfCFTA, adding that there appears to be freer cross-border trade in goods in not too distant future that coincides with aviation leaders and bodies pushing for ‘Single African Sky’.

“When these two ‘business enablers’ converge/ achieved, Africa will begin to operate close and similar to EU system (no matter how utopian it appears today).

“Any careful observer would further note the higher cost of living , higher pricing of USD across many African countries, increasing airfares cost to historically preferred vacation points; Europe and America; Africa appears to be looking inwards to identify bright spots and cities within the Africa continent for vacation as an alternative or viable options to former prime destination points,” he added.

Erika Achums, CEO of Vivajets which commenced operations in Nigeria few weeks ago told BusinessDay that Vivajets was launched to breach the gap of poor flight connectivity between Nigeria and other African countries.

“A one hour 30 minutes flight within Africa would take an average traveller nine hours because he has to connect flights and movements cannot be facilitated.

“We are trying to break this barrier by utilizing the power of business aviation. With Vivajets, you can fly directly from Lagos to Gabon and all other African destinations,” Achums explained.

Travelling from Accra to Brazzaville, Congo, often involves multiple stops, such as going through Ethiopia and then Rwanda or Uganda, even worse, they transit through Europe or the Middle East at times.

The journey from Accra to Brazzaville, covering just 200km, takes more than 24 hours. In contrast, a traveller heading from Accra to Johannesburg, over 4000 km away, arrives hours earlier.

This is often the case with several other African countries.

Sindy Foster, principal managing partner, Avaero Capital Partners told BusinessDay that airlines are interested in behind and beyond traffic; collecting passengers from one airport to deliver them to another another and this is often done via a hub and spoke network.

“If you won’t have enough passengers at your airport because of the lack of connectivity, airlines will collect passengers from other countries and deliver them to their hub. Alternatively, they negotiate a 5th freedom right to collect passengers from one country (which is not their own) and deliver them to another country. That combines the traffic from two countries to one destination and makes some routes more viable.

Foster said everyone would benefit from the better air connectivity that will be facilitated through operations of African carriers in Nigeria.

She listed the direct and indirect benefits of aviation to include bringing investors to and from Nigeria, creating tourism opportunities, saving costs and reducing travel time.

“There are benefits to Nigeria and there are benefits to the other country. We should not look at it as losing. We should focus on the gains,” she said.

She said the location of Nigeria makes it a target for 5th freedom flights, adding that the fact that there are lots of airports still not accessible via the African continent from Nigeria will mean that it will remain a target for more airlines.

“Nigerians will be able to access the continent and beyond without going through Europe, Middle East or North America,” she said.

Olumide Ohunayo industry analyst and Director, Research, Zenith Travels told BusinessDay that it is commendable that African airlines are seeking slots and frequencies into Nigeria and they are looking beyond just the point of entry.

Ohunayo said while there have been calls in the industry to stop this from happening, Nigeria should not push its luck too far.

He stressed that the country needs to strengthen its own airlines to compete.

“If we are signatory to SAATM, then we should accept the responsibility of allowing African airlines operate to any point. What is important is that one airline should come into a country through a point and exit through that same point. We should also not allow them use our country to go into another country until when we have our airlines ready for such arrangements.

“It is time we ensure our airlines participate in the revolution that is happening. ValueJet is planning to go beyond Nigeria. We need to develop and support our airlines to go beyond the Nigerian space and start with the African routes. What I am happy about is that there is a new alignment coming up in Africa. South African Airways and Kenyan Airways have come together and they are looking for a partner in Nigeria,” Ohunayo said.

According to him, Nigerian airlines need to show their systems, processes, corporate governance and accounts for other Afeican airlines to be able to partner and invest with them.