Chairman of Airport Business Summit and the organiser of popular Nigeria Aviation Awards (NIGAV), Mr Fortune Idu, is set to light up the aviation sector in this year’s event coming up on December 19, 2021, in a different way.
Speaking to Nigerian Tribune, Idu said this year’s awards will be focussing mainly on the need to recognize those who contributed to the speedy recovery of the sector despite the COVID-19 disaster.
His words, “First, we look at generally how the industry has performed and you can see there is a serious increase in terms of traffic almost climbing to post COVID which is good recovery so, the question is what role did people, individuals, companies play to get us to this point?
“So, this year’s event we are looking at recovery. What role did people play in getting us to the point where we are now approaching post COVID-19 traffic in a very short while? Because the assessment was that the industry will take a long time to recover but now, it is recovering very fast so, what role did we play, what role did individuals play? We start to look at each unit and what role they could have played. For instance, in reopening of the airports, operations played a very serious role in restart of the airport and making sure we didn’t have pandemonium at the airport in terms of human management and all that, there was this issue of having to put lines, having to restrict movement, having to monitor movement, having to insist in change in behaviour, character, wearing of masks, these are completely strange things to people. We had to put that in the industry, force it on the industry and of course people complied, people made sure that people complied and those people who made sure that people complied we need to look at them.
“The airlines themselves also complied seriously, we need to look at it. Then the management of the industry; how were they able to effectively bring out policies and how were they able to get these policies out to the public for the public to comply?”
Speaking on how the consistency in the awards for over ten years had impacted the entire sector, the summit chairman cited how the awards had led to an increase in best practice among the different professional groups.
“Well, increase in best practice, you can attest that every airport manager look forward to becoming the best airport manager of the year and ever since we started it we have discovered that airport managers are not taking customers, passengers for granted. If you walk into any airport right now and you make a complaint, the airport manager sits up immediately because there is an independent watchdog who will see to the rewarding or damning report of any of the airport managers at the end of the year. You can see that also happening with the air hostesses. Air hosts and hostesses are beginning to sit up on how they address and treat passengers. Before they were like gods, you cannot talk to them, they use harsh tones. They don’t do it anymore because there is a competition on who becomes the king and queen of the air which is a tremendous thing we have done.”
Another idea introduced in the coming awards is the aspect designed to choose the best male and female cabin crew who will get a cash reward of up to N1 million.
“For the king and queen of the air, there is a cash reward to it. Why did we choose the air host and hostess for a cash reward? Because of the impact which they have on passengers’ experience in a confined space. You can put somebody in a box-like space. All kinds of people — the good, the bad, the ugly, the one that is scared, the one that is comfortable, that is an inexperienced flier, the one that is a new flier, the one that is carrying a baby, the one that wants all the space to himself and all that — you bring them in an aircraft space and you fly them for an hour or more and you have them under control and have them behave well and those who misbehave, you are able to manage them. They put tremendous effort into helping to promote that which you said earlier, a passenger experience and increasing the need, removing fear because you get some into the plane and find out some people are scared for the first time, the air hostess and host has to speak to them.”
According to Idu, another unique thing about this year’s awards is that “it is happening in our own center. NIGAV had traveled from one hotel, peoples properties over the past 10 years but this year, it is happening in our own center, a center that is purposely built for the promotion of trade from the eyes of the aviation industry. So, we see the aviation industry as the catalyst for international trade and the NIGAV center pride itself to be part of the promoter of regional, international and local trade. The NIGAV center is built for that and rewarding people within that center shows our commitment to having a continued and a sustainable promotional platform.”