Flight delays on domestic routes have continued to make air travelers uneasy. In 2018, 36, 350 flights were either delayed or cancelled, while figures for the first quarter of this year stood at 7, 926. Industry experts are worried that if this trend continues unchecked, the result may be unpalatable for both passengers and airlines, writes KELVIN OSA OKUNBOR.
Flight schedule punctuality is one of the major attractions to air transportation. It is for this reason that airlines as players in the transport value chain schedule their flights to enable passengers get to their destinations on time.
Effective time management, experts said, accounts for massive patronage of airlines and airports in the business of moving people and goods from one location to another.
According to experts, for airlines and airports to play their strategic roles as catalysts for economic development, regulators and operators must adopt measures to reduce the upsurge in flight delays and cancellations.
One of the ways to achieve this, they said, is for the government to fix inadequate airports and terminal facilities. Part of the facilities include expansion of screening points at airports and installation of air field lighting systems to enable airlines 24-hour flight. Sadly, many airports have single runway and screening points to attend to airlines scheduled to take off at the same time.
In the last three years, the nation’s economy has lost several billions of naira to incessant flight delays and cancellations by both domestic and international airlines.
Experts are worried that the increasing rate of both delayed and cancelled flights is creating unease in the sector as passengers continue to inundate the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) with complaints.
NCAA statistics
Fact sheet from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has shown that an average of three out of every four flights were delayed in 2017. Its Director-General, Captain Muktar Usman said the authority was getting worried over the trend.
According to the regulator, out of 48,319 flights operated by eight airlines, 30,214 were late, while 872 were cancelled. The breakdown indicated that Aero Contractors recorded 66.5 per cent delay rate; Arik Air, 61.8 per cent; Azman Air, 66.4 per cent; Dana Air 64.2 per cent; Med-View Airlines Plc 71 per cent; Overland 70.1 per cent; First Nation 35.8 per cent; and Air Peace 58.2 per cent.
In 2018, the aviation regulator reported that 36,350 domestic flights were delays. A breakdown of 2018 figure ranked Air Peace as first, having recorded 14, 069 flights delayed; 137 cancelled flights while it operated 22, 055 flights.
Statistics from the apex aviation regulatory body showed that 59,818 flights were operated by nine airlines in the period under review.
According to the document, 544 flights were cancelled for various reasons by the airlines. The NCAA listed airlines to include : Max Air, Dana Air, First Nation, Overland, Arik, Azman , Aero Contractors, Air Peace and Medview.
Arik Air had 8,073 delayed flights and 152 cancellations out of its scheduled 15,205 flight operations.
Dana Air on the other hand, operated 5,944 flights with 3,915 cases of delayed flights and 67 cancellations.
Azman Air recorded 3,242 and 49 delayed and cancelled flights respectively, out of the 4,944 flights operated by the airline in the period under review.
Also, Aero Contractors operated 4,361 flights with 2,459 delays and 70 cancellations; while Overland had 601 flights with 1,960 delayed and 29 cancellations; and Medview, 2058 flights with 1,256 delayed and 42 cancellations.
Max Air recorded 1,151 delays and five cancellations, out of the 2,205 flights operated by the airline.
Similarly, FirstNation Airways, whose licence has been suspended by the NCAA, recorded 137 delayed flights and three cancellations, out of 445 flights operated within the period under review.
In the first three months of this year, the NCAA said domestic carriers have recorded 7,926 cases of delayed flights. This represents more than 50 per cent of the flights within the period under review. Air Peace, which operated 5,768 flights, topped the delayed flight chart with 3,058 and 66 cancellations, while Arik Air followed with 1,376 delayed flights, 32 cancellations out of its 3,001 flight operations.
Aero operated 1,535 flights with 951 delayed and 31 cancelled while Azman Air recorded 637 delays and eight cancellations out of the 1,301 flights operated. Also, Dana Air operated 919 flights with 587 delays and 25 cancellations; Overland, 612 flights with 421 delays and six cancellations. The rest are Max Air, which operated 1,416 flights with 810 delays and four cancellations as well as Medview, which operated 183 flights with 112 delayed and nine cancelled.
However, the delays, according to the airlines, were due to operational reasons bordering on scarcity of aviation fuel as well as adverse weather conditions, leading to low visibility at most of the airports.
Experts’ views
Aviation security expert, Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd) said there are more factors to flight delays, and “they are generally beyond the controls of airlines”.
They include: passenger access control, passenger and carry-on-baggage check-point screening, hold baggage screening and sorting, number of boarding gates and the boarding screening.
“All these are not within the control of the airlines as they often delay passenger facilitation and flight departure time, especially at Single Terminal Airport, with a single passenger screening, check points and single boarding gate.
“For instance, at Lagos Airports Murtala Muhammed Airport (MM2) and General Aviation Terminal (GAT) , where there are two domestic terminals:, there is only one screening point and one boarding gate at the GAT, where Air Peace and Arik with more flights operate from, whereas, the MM2, most times, has about two passenger screening check points and about six boarding gate.
“What the stakeholders and the NCAA should consider more to assist flight operation, are the efficiency of passenger checkpoint screening facilitation process and the screening machines. There is a need to ensure that there are sufficient skilled manpower at these screening points and that there is regular power supply to the screening machines such that deficiency or breakdown of manpower or machine does not result to manual screening in aviation security defence layer.”
Ojikutu added that beyond reading riot act to the airlines, the NCAA also needed to look inwards and intensify its regulatory activities, including calling the airport managers to order.
Operators’ perspective
Umbrella body of domestic carriers, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), said the government should fix inadequate terminal facilities to enable airlines operate 24 hours. Its chairman, Captain Nogie Meggison said the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has a huge role to play in this respect.
A few years ago , Meggison said domestic airlines may be losing as much as N20 billion annually to flight cancellations.
Also speaking, Air Peace Chairman, Mr Allen Onyema said poor airport infrastructure also contributes to flight delays as over 1000 passengers sometimes have to use one security screening point.
Dana Air’s Accountable Manager, Obi Mbanuzuo said flight delays are due to inadequate infrastructure . ” We go through day to day operational challenges . In some airports the landing facilities are not there for 24 hours . That is why airlines either cancel or delay flights.
Regulator’s position
NCAA spokesman, Sam Adurogboye, said the agency has considered it top priority to address passengers’ complaints and monitors activities of air service providers to mitigate complaints such as flight delays and cancellations.
According to NCAA’s regulation on passengers rights, passengers can request compensation for flight cancellation and delays for reasons other than technical, weather conditions, air traffic control restrictions, security risks and industrial disputes.
He explained that flights could be delayed or cancelled because of bad weather or engine failure, but noted that the regulatory authority does not support flight delays or cancellations without any genuine reasons, especially natural occurrences that can’t be controlled.
According to an expert, who declined to be named, in other airports around the world, the standard time for processing a passenger through the checkpoint screening is about 15/20 seconds. That is three or four passenger per minute or 180 to 240 passengers per hour.
”Around here, it is less seamless and for many reasons. While screening bottleneck is the main constraint at Air Peace’s General Aviation Terminal (GAT), Lagos, there are other factors ranging from the chain reaction of such morning delays, low capacity to execute schedule, aviation fuel shortage and technical issues, among others coming under “operational issues” often given as excuses for flight delays.
“Another cause of delay is poor infrastructure at the airports. Ideally, it should take not more than 30 seconds to screen a passenger, but in Nigeria it can take up to two minutes with the screening officials more interested in extortion than doing their job. This poses a problem for the airlines. For example, Air Peace and Arik Air face a lot of delays to process passengers at the GAT, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos because there is only one functional X-ray machine at any point in time and hundreds of passengers going to different destinations during the morning rush hours must pass through one functional X-ray machine at each of the terminals at the GAT.
“I urge FAAN to provide adequate number of security equipment and personnel to effectively man these machines in order to reduce the delay caused by security screening at the airports. “
Retired pilot and former Managing Director of the defunct Virgin Nigeria, Capt. Dapo Olumide, said there are several issues that cause airlines’ failure in Nigeria and one of them is the poor utilisation of aircraft.
IATA’s position
International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged Nigerian government to fix poor infrastructure to enhance aviation business .
Its Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Alexandre De Juniac said investment in improving airport infrastructure would go a long way to assist airlines and ensure seamless operations.
He said: “Infrastructure plays a key and important role in the services airlines provide to their passengers. The terminal facilities should provide passengers with good experience.”
Other complaints
Meanwhile, airlines and passengers have expressed their disenchantment over aircraft’s inability to land at the second runway of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) after 6:30 pm.
According to them, congestion on the first runway of the airport due to traffic from foreign airlines from 6:30 pm, causes delays both for arriving flights and flights primed to take off.
A group of Aviators recently called on the regulatory agencies to consider ways of reducing delays and flights’ cancellations.
The group said it was getting worried over the spate of multiple flight diversions due to bad weather and aerodrome closure during sunset. This, according to him, resulted from inadequate or non-functional ground navigational equipment such as ground-to-air radar, Instrument Landing System, VHF Omni directional Range, among others.
Its spokesman , Ben Victor, decried the increasing rate of flight cancellations or delays without compensating passengers and noted that recent cases in Kano, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Owerri, Benin, Asaba, Ilorin and Enugu airports, among others, are worrisome.
The organisation, therefore, urged the regulatory agencies, such as FAAN, NCAA and Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), to enforce sanctions on erring airlines so as to bring sanity to the sector.
He said: “Flight delays have become regular narratives at the local airports across the country without explanations to passengers who might have incurred financial lose or undergone emotional stress.
“ A major operator has become the major culprit as they flagrantly delay or cancel flight schedules. The truth should be told, if airlines are made to compensate passengers for flight delays or cancellation, they will sit up.
“At the moment, most air passengers hold the view that they are being taken for granted. Who’s at fault? The regulatory agencies need to wake up. Today’s problem will continue to expand if not addressed.”
The association also called on the regulatory bodies to monitor the functionality of equipment at the airports, especially during night flights. It also tasked the regulatory bodies to ensure that basic infrastructure facilities in the airports are functioning.
“The Nigerian aviation industry has been taken 40 years behind compared with its counterparts in other climes. Passengers blame airlines for operational anomalies, but the regulatory authorities also have their blames,” he said.
The group, however, called on regulatory agencies to wake up to its responsibilities. “Only four airports in Nigeria have partially functional navigational ground equipment. They are Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano. The rest airports are Visual Flight Rules airports and that is why you cannot land in some airports at sun set,” the organisation stated.