RECENTLY, an aviation pressure group, made up of different professionals from within and out of the country’s aviation sector, under the aegis of Aviation Round Table (ART) raised the alarm over how the domestic air transport is speedily nosediving due to what the group ascribed to the high cost of air tickets and reduced purchasing power of Nigerian citizens.
Speaking on behalf of the group, at the 3rd quarterly business breakfast meeting organized by the non governmental body in Lagos, the chairman, Air Commodore Ademola Onitiju (rtd), while recommending the urgent need for government to be deliberate its policy for rescuing the aviation sector from collapse, equally, urged the government to emplace policies that will create conducive environment for aviation to thrive, remove the shackles and make air travel affordable.
Onitiju used the opportunity to advocate discriminatory exchange rate for maintenance and related activities including the acquisition of aircraft spares and ground handling equipment to enhance safety and ease of operations.
According to the ART Chairman: “It is our belief that these and other benefits will reduce operational costs , enhance proficiency and competitiveness. Aviation is a catalyst for the growth of the tourism, hospitality and other sectors of the economy.
.”We had suggested that there be a single digit lending rate for the aviation sector to enhance its growth and contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product . We believe that the establishment of an Aviation Finance Bank could help in actualising these. The ART equally emphasised the need for purposeful coordination between the aviation sector and other government agencies especially the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to arrest this existential threat.”
All these salient issues raised by the ART were pointers to the fact that as much as the government was making efforts to win over foreign investors into the sector, there is an urgent need for the same energy to be applied locally.
Obviously, domestic airline business is presently encumbered with various challenges which is making the local operators to perform abysmally not that they lack the capacity but just because the challenges are weighing down on their operating cost.
This myriad of challenges was responsible for the stories of flight cancellations and delays and the subsequent loss of profitable ventures by the airlines on one hand, frustration and near apathy towards air travels by the few Nigerians still willing to patronize air travels on the other hand. It is therefore right to understand why the ART drew the attention of government to the dwindle in domestic passengers traffic as mostly caused by high cost of air tickets and reduced purchasing power of Nigerian citizens.
To describe these obvious challenges as a red flag may not be an exaggeration in view of the hardships being faced by travelers as they struggle to afford air fares, a situation which cannot be blamed on the operators who also have many financial induced crisis confronting them.
The need for government to urgently step in to rescue the sector becomes pertinent as the Yuletide draws closer when many Nigerians love to travel to their choice destinations.
Amongst the myriad of challenges making domestic air transport becoming unaffordable are: the embarrassing collapse of naira, expensive aviation fuel, which is taking over more than 45 percent of the airlines’ cost of productions, multiple taxations, scarcity and the wide gap between the naira and the dollar or other foreign currencies.
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The federal government through the minister of aviation and aerospace development, Festus Keyamo should therefore not trivialize the facts raised by the ART whose members are all experts in their various fields.
ART is known in the sector as a group that does not speak when it is not necessary in view of the caliber of those who made up the membership. Hence, any attempt to ignore their position as contained in their recent breakfast meeting may rub off on the frantic efforts so far made by the government to reposition the sector in the coming year.
Sincerely, with the present circumstances on ground as the festive seasons approach air transport on the domestic scene may be chaotic for travelers who may have to pay higher fares while the operators equally may be faced with challenges of giving the traveling public the best services brought upon them by the consequences of the listed factors.
and then