Better days ahead with new airport terminals, new airlines

WITHOUT doubt, the outgone 2020 remains a disastrous period for the country’s aviation sector just like other sectors not only in Nigeria but across the globe, all because of the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic that unleashed its fury and still ravaging both humans and businesses.

Following the negative impact of the pandemic, many businesses, particularly in the aviation world, including those in Nigeria, folded up. Airlines in Nigeria are still gasping despite the release of N4 billion bailout funds, with all of them sacking many workers, reducing their operations and canceling aircraft orders.

The aviation agencies are not left out of the hardship as the subsequent economic hardship thrown at them almost made it impossible for them to pay salaries and carry out critical safety projects.

With all these challenges confronting the sector, certainly many key players’ hope of witnessing any progressive transformation was at the lowest ebb due to the deep margin of economic hardship inflicted on the entire sector.

To this set of people, all hope is not lost based on the events which have been unfolding in the sector in the new year, particularly the ongoing infrastructure  transformation at some airports.

It’s no longer news that anytime from now, the federal government will commission the new international terminals at both Lagos and Kano airports that will catapult the air transport business and make flying more seamless to travelers.

Already, the international wing of Lagos airport has greatly been transformed due to the completion of the new terminal, to which many airport users have attested.

Confirming the ongoing moves to bring more comfort to the airports vicinity despite the ravaging pandemic, the General Manager, Corporate Communications at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs Henrietta Yakubu had declared that FAAN will pursue aggressive infrastructure upgrade in 2021, while she added that the government will commission the new international airport terminals in Lagos and Kano in the new year.

Besides the new airport terminals, Yakubu also hinted of government’s efforts at embarking on other projects which will be executed and commissioned in the new year.

Apart from the gigantic efforts ongoing to make the airports look more befitting, hope of better things to come has also been rekindled with the news about the coming of  three new airlines to the domestic scene.

The new airlines are: Green Africa Airways, United Nigeria Airlines and the long awaited national carrier, Nigeria Air. The coming of these airlines will not only make flying more competitive and stir up activities within the sector, but also generate more funds to the coffers of the government.

The icing on the cake of the good news in respect of the decisions of two of the new airlines, Green Africa Airways and United Nigeria Airlines’ departure from the usual use of Boeing and Airbus aircraft types often regarded as fuel guzzlers for commercial operations to embrace more cost effective and fuel efficient aircraft types like Bombardier and Embraer for their operations.

The style of the new entrants, according to key players in the sector, has been described as one of the best ways to start an airline business which had hitherto been the bane of the domestic carriers.

All things being equal, should the government make do its promise to establish a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO), an aircraft maintenance facility in the country as earlier declared by the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, as captured in N78.960 billion proposed for the execution of major projects in the new year, this will save the struggling airlines huge fortune they often part with while taking their aircraft outside the country for maintenance.

Without doubt, despite the continuous rampaging of the pandemic, the airport and other aviation authorities in Nigeria are not resting on their oars as they continue to rub minds on how to make flight operations move forward and not be left behind at the end of the pandemic.

Without doubt, business activities are gradually picking up across the country’s aviation sector despite the financial predicaments, one obvious fact is that better days are coming for air travelers and other airport users, thanks to the resilient efforts of the airports and aviation authorities to embrace new ideas.

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