The policy of designating each foreign airline to operate into two or more airports in the country is being appraised by industry operators. They also evaluate the position of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority which insists that it carries out the policies of the Federal Government. Chinedu Eze reports
Last week at a stakeholders’ conference in Lagos, the Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren, explained that the multi designation of foreign airlines into different airports in the country is determined by the Minister of Aviation and the Aviation Ministry. He added that NCAA as a regulatory body implements the policies of the Federal Government and only has absolute autonomy on safety issues.
Demuren also said that designating one foreign airline to more than one airport may be politically correct but economically wrong and canvassed that foreign airlines should be allowed to operate to only Abuja and Lagos airports in order not to stifle the domestic market for local airlines.
He added that foreign airlines could code share with domestic carriers so that both could benefit from the passenger movement in the local and foreign routes.
But many people in the industry say that it is good to make Lagos airport a hub for the West Africa sub region, but due to the size of the country and the nature of domestic airlines operations in terms of route designation, it will not benefit the passengers if foreign airlines are made to fly into Lagos and Abuja only.
Multidesignation
They posit that the domestic carriers can still have their market if one foreign airline is made to fly directly to its chosen airport and fly out of it to its foreign destination without hopping to another local airport.
Some industry observers say that the domestic airlines market is hurt when a foreign operator flies into Nigeria, lands at airport A, drops some passengers, takes others to airport B, drops them and picks another batch of passengers, takes them to airport A again, picks passengers and flies from there to its foreign destination.
For example, Saudi Arabia airline may choose to operate into Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, the same with Egypt Air, Middle East Airline and others. But the airlines should land and take off from that airport to its international destination.
In the same vein, British Airways may choose to operate into Lagos, while Lufthansa may choose to operate into Abuja and Air France may choose to operate into Port Harcourt. Even if one airline decides to operate into more than one airport but each airport that its flight lands in it also takes off from that airport to overseas destination.
Politically-motivated Decisions
Demuren, at the stakeholders’ conference, noted that the decision by government to designate foreign airlines to more than one airport in Nigeria may be politically expedient but economically detrimental to domestic carriers.
He recalled that the British Airways was given grandfather right because of the length of years it had operated in Nigeria, for the airline to operate into Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, as the policy makers in government believed that the nation’s capital deserved that a major international carrier operates into the city.
The Director General recommended that the way out of the woods for Nigerian airlines is for government to insist that foreign airlines must have code share agreement with local operators so that the domestic carriers could partake in the accruing revenue in such operations.
He noted that what is economically viable is for the country to have one operational hub, while domestic carriers feed passengers into the hub from where they would be airlifted by the foreign carriers.
“Limiting all flights into one place so that foreign airlines will be airlifting passengers from there is bad politics but good economy. BA got Abuja as grandfather’s rights. We begged BA to go to Abuja. Why should people from Port Harcourt, Kano come to Lagos to fly out of the country? Politically it sounds good but economically it is bad. Good politics; bad economy.”
The Director General also disclosed that those concerned with decision making are still insisting on designating more airports for international operation, but remarked that the only way domestic airlines could survive this erosion of the domestic market is for them to code share with the international operators.
“Political decisions sometimes override economic decisions. NCAA is meant to comply with the policies and decisions of government. The Minister gives policy direction to the authority, except on matters concerning safety. Multidesignating foreign airlines will grow the regions and Nigeria will grow like the United States where international airlines fly direct to different cities,” he added.
Passenger Comfort
An industry operator and seasoned pilot told THISDAY on Tuesday in Lagos that it would be difficult for Nigeria to designate foreign airlines to only one airport in the country.
He said that what must be considered first should be the comfort of the passengers and if that is put into consideration, passengers should not be made to travel very far before they can get a flight that would take them overseas.
The operator said that there should be flexibility, even when the country is protecting its domestic market for domestic airlines.
“You can designate airlines to various airports, but any foreign airline that lands at any airport must take off from that airport out of Nigeria and not hop from one airport to another in the country.
In other words, you can land in Kano, pick passengers in Kano and fly out of the country. You can also land in Lagos, pick passengers in Lagos and fly out of the country. But if you land in Kano, pick passengers in Kano and take them to Lagos, it is not acceptable.”
The pilot gave example with British Airways and explained that the mega carrier flies from London to Houston, Texas, picks passengers from Houston and flies back to London.
“Another flight from BA takes off from London to Dallas, Texas and flies from Dallas back to London. So you can have BA flying to Dallas, Texas, to Houston, Texas and flying from these two different cities directly to London with two different aircraft.”
He said that it is not wrong for one airline to operate from Dubai straight to Port Harcourt and another airline also flying straight from Dubai to another city in Nigeria.
“The idea of how the passenger gets to the airport where his chosen airline operates is his own decision to take. He may choose to fly domestic airline to get to the airport or he may choose to travel by road. If one airport is used to operate all international flights, it will be difficult for a passenger who went to Dubai or London or Istanbul to buy goods to bring them in, say in Lagos and use land transport to move them to Kano.
“He will incur so much cost and will not even be sure that his good will be intact by the time he will arrive at his destination. This major challenge will be erased if he lands in Kano and moves his good to a few kilometres to his house or shop,” the pilot explained.
Economic Empowerment
Recently in an interview the Chairman of IRS Airlines, Alhaji Isyaku Rabiu admitted that the operations of international airlines are affecting the domestic market negatively but not as adversely as the industry thinks. He stressed that economic empowerment rather than curtailing the airports foreign airlines operate into in the country would boost the local air transport market.
“In some way yes (multidesignation affects the domestic airlines), because you stand to reason that if you have foreign airlines in multiple entry points, someone that should ordinarily fly from Port Harcourt to Lagos, can fly out of Port Harcourt directly to international destinations.
“And so the domestic airlines that do these movements do not get that part of the market. I think it is a little part of the matter because when you look at the studies in years past it was not a problem. 10 years ago international traffic was accounting for about 50 per cent of passenger movement; the domestic market had 50 per cent then. Now, we have 12 million domestic passengers every year and we have international at about three million,” Rabiu added.
Also, the Chief Executive Officer of BeluJane Konsult Limited and former image maker of defunct Nigeria Airways Limited, Chris Aligbe, said that Nigeria should not have embarked on the policy of multi designation of foreign airlines.
“The policy did not help the domestic airlines; neither did it help the plan to have a hub. The ones we have already designated we can do nothing about, but we should be extremely careful in designating new ones,” he added.
Also, an industry critic, Olu Fidel Ohunayo, told THISDAY that the idea of multi-designating foreign airlines in Nigeria was due to political expediency, remarking that the Director General of NCAA, Dr. Demuren, was under tremendous pressure to designate foreign airlines to many airports in the country.
“I think the Director General’s statement should be seen as political expediency. He is under tremendous pressure from some federal and state government officials and other sectional interests to implement and open the skies for further foreign invasion.
“Stakeholders can also reduce the pressure from the right by voicing their opinions from the left. We say it’s not economically wise and helpful to our carriers, employment generation and the development of core professionals in the industry. If you cannot control fares you can at least control exploitation,” he added.
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