Poor regulatory policies and a hostile operating
environment have been identified as the major challenges facing Nigeria’s air
transport sector, which has been described as lopsided in favour of
international operators.
Airline operators who spoke to THISDAY complain
that there is no clear policy on how government can support the airlines, as
obtained in other parts of the world, since air transportation is a huge vehicle
to economic development of any nation.
Consequently, indigenous carriers have been
operating without growth and profitability due mainly to the poor policies, lack
of support, high fuel prices and high charges.
The President of the National Association of
Aircraft Pilot and Engineers (NAAPE), Isaac Balami said: “Generally there is no
airline that can survive in the world without government input. Name all the
leading airlines from the UK, America, Middle East and others, they all need the
support of the host government in one way or the other. Nigeria is the only
country in the world without consistent programme on how to support its
airlines.”
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
of MedView Airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole says that high fuel cost “eats up the
revenue of airlines, taking over 40 per cent of operational cost of putting
aircraft in the air.”
He said that as oil producing country, Nigerian
airlines should not be paying for fuel at the present high price of N170 per
litre, adding that government should support the airlines by reviewing downward
the price of aviation fuel, Jet A1.
Bankole said that about 2812. 5 litres of fuel is
consumed by a Boeing 737 aircraft for a 50 minutes flight from Lagos to Abuja.
This, when multiplied by N170.00 per litre, will cost an airline with that
aircraft type about N478, 125 for that 50 minutes flight.
He said government should invite oil marketers to
the table to see how they could reach a compromise on how to bring down the cost
of aviation fuel, remarking that the marketers also have their own
challenges.
The airlines have also complained about high
charges by aviation agencies, including the five per cent tax on ticket by the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), which it shares with two other
agencies; the charges paid to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and that
of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
Bankole said that these charges stifle the growth
of indigenous airlines and this explained why no domestic airline exists for a
long time and also why Nigerian operators have limited capacity, lamenting that
a country of over 170 million has barely six operating airlines, many of them
with few aircraft in their fleet.
“The challenge in running an airline in Nigeria
is enormous. It is just the matter of doing something for a long time that made
us go into the business,” Bankole said.
He however gave kudos to the Federal Government for the waiver of Customs duty on importation of commercial aircraft and parts, noting that the Nigerian Customs Service is cooperating to make the waiver work.
He however gave kudos to the Federal Government for the waiver of Customs duty on importation of commercial aircraft and parts, noting that the Nigerian Customs Service is cooperating to make the waiver work.
culled from Thisday
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