Domestic airlines operating in Nigeria are currently operating below capacity as a result of low purchasing power of Nigerians and poor landing aids across Nigeria’s airports.
Experts say this situation is costing airlines billions of naira in unearned revenues.
BusinessDay’s checks show that currently less than 10 percent of the population travel by air as a result of low purchasing power of the populace.
This has continually made it difficult for airlines to carry aircraft with full load of passengers, thereby making it difficult to realise their operating cost.
A report obtained by BusinessDay has revealed that only 11,221,617 passengers passed through the nation’s 32 airports in 2017, representing 26.3 percent drop when compared with the preceding year.
In addition to this, an average functional aircraft can operate for 15 to 18 hours daily, but Nigerian airlines fly an average of only five 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, told BusinessDay.
Pam explained that some of the landing aids were 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.
According to Pam, 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.
“All the 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 8 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, said.
BuinessDay’s checks show that Nigeria loses N13.6 billion annually to poor navigational aids as a result of the failure of the Federal Airports Authority (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 N37.5million daily and N13.6billion annually.
Nogie Meggison, president, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), also said poor navigational and landing aids limit operations to daylight operation for most Nigerian airports.
