The closure of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja for repairs has continued to take a toll on the operations of both the local and international airlines with most of them lamenting the unprecedented loss of income since the works began. Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf in this report examines the issues
EXACTLY four weeks after the federal government announced the closure of the Abuja Airport to effect repairs in critical areas of the airport infrastructure, major players in the sector have continued to lick their wounds on account of the losses incurred as a result of the disruption of flights.
Independent investigation carried out by The Nation revealed that many of the airlines are unhappy with the development because the federal government had presented a fait accompli on them.
Speaking with a cross-section of stakeholders, they confided in The Nation that the closure of the Abuja airport for repairs, however necessary was done with scant regard for businesses.
Conservative estimate of losses incurred
Conservative estimate put the loss so far incurred to a staggering N10billion. The airport, which was shutdown last month by the federal government to enable contractors carry out reconstruction work on its runway, have caused most of the airliners to scale down their operations by 40 per cent in the first three weeks of the repairs.
Most of the cost incurred, The Nation gathered, was mainly due to loss of revenue and increased overhead costs.
The local airline operators also regretted that most international airlines, except Ethiopian Airline, were still foot dragging on their promise to reconsider their refusal in directing their Abuja bound flights to Kaduna.
Giving an insight into the situation, the Secretary of the Association of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AAON), Mr. Muftao Adunsaki, said that failure of the international airlines to land in Kaduna had been the main reason most local operators are counting additional losses.
According to him: “Before the closure, the operators had been grappling with a number of operational issues, including low passenger traffic, high cost of aviation fuel and high overhead costs.
“It is not actually the use of Kaduna Airport that is reducing the revenue projection of operators, rather it made the bad situation take a worse shape,” he stated.
Tales of woes
Other operators, who spoke on the issue, said contrary to government promise of making some facilities available in Kaduna, a number of services, remained shoddy if available at all.
For instance, they lamented about limited shuttle buses for passengers and staff of most private companies sent to Kaduna by their employers.
Passengers also recounted their gruesome experiences at the airport lounge and the inconvenience of traveling by road to Abuja.
Both the airline operators and the passengers said that any extension of the Abuja Airport runway repairs, beyond the planned six week-duration, would impact greatly on the sector.
In the view of Mr Sam Adurogboye, General Manager, Public Affairs, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), some of the operators may not have valid reason to seek any form of compensation because the decision to operate from Kaduna airport was strictly a business concern and had nothing to do with regulatory upheavals.
“If an airport has problem, they have to repair it. It’s for the airline to operate to another place of choice to them. So the question of compensation does not arise because if airport is undergoing repairs, it’s for them to find alternate place of landing. In flight, that is why they have what they call alternate of landing. If you operate a place, before you even take off to your destination, you must have an alternative land for your flights. So if you cannot land in Abuja, you have to decide where you want to land even before you have take off and Kaduna now is the alternate to Abuja. But if you say you cannot operate to a place, and then you suspend your operation, there is no question of compensation. But people can talk about because I’m going to operate to this place; this is what it will cost me, that is business permutation. If the runway is not repaired and some of these airlines involve in an accident, it is your insurance that will come in here. So that is how it goes.”
On insinuation in some quarters that First Nation, one of the local airlines was mooting the idea of compensation, the NCAAs’ spokesman said they had no case at all. “If I’m to reply to that, they are been economical with truth because one, they don’t have flight crew, their flight licenses too have expired. They need to do stimulation before they come to us for validation. On the second leg, their airplane had been due for maintenance; they are not back in service. Practically they didn’t have equipment. So why ask for compensation when the disruption of flights did not affect them ab initio?” he queried.
More stakeholder voices
Findings by The Nation further revealed that most of the stakeholders in the sector may have suffered a lot of privations more than they are willing to admit.
Speaking with the Corporate Communications Manager of Air Peace, Mr. Chris Iwarah, he said their experience thus far showed that the situation calls for concern.
“I’ll just love to summarise that it’s been challenging,” he began. “You know the initial reaction to the choice of Kaduna. Initially, there was that issue of security. A lot of travellers did not like the idea of people going to Kaduna and traveling from Kaduna by road to Abuja because of the stress. They didn’t quite like that. It took a lot trying to get them to understand that. You must also understand that a lot of persons had to reschedule their flights for sometime till after the reopening of Abuja airport. That naturally would affect the passenger load.”
“Of course, it certainly affected the passenger load depending on the routes. On some routes, there is no problem, no significant change or drop for us, especially the Lagos Kaduna route, it’s been the same. No change at all. In some other areas, certainly there have been challenges like the Enugu Kaduna route, the passenger traffic dropped significantly and there was nothing anybody could do about that. Generally, in terms of passenger loads, it dropped in some respect and status quo remained in other areas. But when you put that together, on the average, you can say that it is not quite what it used to be when Abuja airport was there.”
In terms of logistics, he said most airlines were not operating from Kaduna initially so given the circumstances they had to set up shops.
“We had to go to Kaduna and set up office in that place. Then you talk of logistics in terms of movement of staff from Abuja to Kaduna. It took a whole lot to put them in hotels and all and we were the ones picking the bills. Then aside that, importantly too, a lot of persons did not just reschedule their flights, a lot of people went as far as cancelling their flights and you know what that means. Cancelling their flights mean that they would ask for a refund and a lot of them have asked for a refund. But generally, it’s our view and position that if it’s for the good of everybody, or if it’s for the good of the nation we don’t compromise safety and security. If it’s for the good of everybody as we’ve been made to understand, it’s fine.”
The runway in Abuja, he admitted, “was totally bad such that it was becoming a safety risk and that if you love your people and you love what you do, certainly you want to support such a venture no matter the sacrifice you have to make and that’s our view and that’s our position.”
Asked to give a conservative estimate of the losses his company may have incurred thus far, he was rather noncommittal. “I can’t be specific because I have not done the computation. It’s still an ongoing thing. It’s only at the end of the entire process we can now compute and say, ok, this was what we had before closure and this was what we had during the closure. It’s only then we can come out with a specific figure but for now, we really cannot come up with any figure. We still have about three weeks to go. We’ve just done half.”
On promos, he said: “Ours is a continuous one. We’ve been doing that. In fact, before even the closure, we came up with N15k fare and we’ve been pursuing that for a long time. It’s been running since because we are aware that a lot of persons who would travel for this period, especially Abuja and other places will have to bear some other costs, not everybody will want to be on the road when it’s late. Thus they would have to stay in Kaduna overnight so that in the morning, they can leave when they think it’s safe and we had to consider that. It’s still running. We believe that flying experience should be democratise, everybody should be able to fly.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Dana Air, Communications Manager, Mr. Kingsley Ezenwa, had something heartwarming to say about this whole affair.
“It hasn’t been really bad seriously. The Kaduna road is very good, as against what people have been saying or peddling about the route. It’s just two hours. It hasn’t been really bad for us as an airline. However, you can’t compare it to Abuja buy it hasn’t been really bad,” he said self-assuredly.
On whether it has not affected your bottom-line in any way, he said nothing was amiss. “It depends on where you’re looking at it from. That’s why l’m saying that compare to Abuja, you can’t compare but we can’t say it’s been really bad like that. But for me to give you figures, or estimates, it would be a bit difficult because we can’t actually give any estimate now.”
Pressed further, he said: “For us, as an airline, before we start any new route, we do a thorough review to see if we’re going to break even here or there and see if we can actually do it because we’re a low-budget carrier. So we want to maintain that status. So we try as much as possible to say okay, can we do this pocket friendly fares in the midst of the challenges in this particular area or not. These are some of the things we look into before we do anything. For Kaduna, we looked at the time people are going out and when they are coming in. That would actually determine the number of flights to be booked.”
Dana Air’s fares, he maintained, have been pocket friendly from time to time but he however hinted of plans by the company to introduce some kind of promo in the coming weeks. “We have plans to bring some promo fares. But even without the promo fares, our fares are really considerable and very pocket friendly.”
Meanwhile, the federal government Coordinating Committee overseeing the repairs claimed that: “The free bus shuttle conveyed passengers between Abuja and Kaduna airports, starting at the Abuja airport at 6 o’clock in the morning, and at the Kaduna Airport from 8 a.m.
“The shuttle takes 3 hours from airport to airport, and runs every 30 minutes, until the arrival of the last daily flight in Kaduna.
“The Shuttle is in addition to the federal government’s free Train Service between Abuja and Kaduna.
“The two-and-half-hour Train Service departs Abuja’s Idu Station for Kaduna at 6 a.m., 11.55 a.m. and 5.45 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays; and departs Kaduna’s Rigasa Station for Abuja at 9 a.m., 2.50 p.m. and 8.40 p.m.,’’ the source said.
According to the source, the reconstruction at the Abuja airport is going according to schedule, and expressed optimism that the airport will reopen after six weeks as planned.
The official is also involved in the presidential supervision of the airport closure and oversight.
The source also said the Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, had been working diligently to minimise the inconvenience caused by the closure.
He further disclosed that, “after the Abuja airport reopens for operations on April 19, upgrade works on the runway would continue for another 18 weeks.
“This second phase of upgrade works on the runway will be carried out at night, with no disruption to flight schedules, the Presidency official further disclosed.’’
The committee had launched series of customer engagement initiatives to enable passengers and travellers affected by the closure (of NAIA) get up-to-date information and updates.
