TheRE was a drop in the number of passengers who travelled through Nigerian airports in 2017 compared to 2016, statistics from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) have revealed.
According to NCAA, inbound, passengers on domestic routes were 3,780,576 and outbound, 3,865,499.
Inbound and outbound passenger traffic in 2016 were 4,024,387 and 4,171,191.
The authority said international airlines in the same year recorded 1,750,184 in-bound passengers while out-bound passengers on international flights were 1,825,358.
The 2017 figures represent a decline compared with inbound passengers for 2016,which was 1,952,657 while outbound figure was 2,011,705.
In an interview, NCAA Consumer Protection Director Adamu Abdullahi attributed the decrease to the exit of Arik Air from some international and regional operations.
Arik Air last year suspended flights on its Lagos-London, New York, Johannesburg and Dubai routes.
The airline also suspended operations on some routes in West and Central Africa.
Apart from the suspension of flights on international routes by Arik Air, Abdulahi said the streamlining of the airline’s operations on some routes after its take- over by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) also contributed to the decrease in passenger traffic.
According to him, the decrease in passenger traffic last year affected the number of complaints received by the Consumer Protection Directorate of the NCAA
He put the number of flights operated by foreign carriers at 13,503 while domestic routes’ was put at 48,319 for 2017.
Abdulahi said carriers on international routes operated 15,465 flights in 2016 with domestic carriers figures put at 54,682.
The NCAA director said the authority in 2017 received complaints from 200 passengers on international flights while complaints by passengers on domestic flights stood at 78.
He said while 30 carriers operated on international routes, the number of domestic carriers remained eight.
Abdulahi said: “One of the major players in the international scene, which is Arik Air stopped international operations after it was taken over by AMCOM in 2016; throughout 2017, they did not operate international flights. That is why there was a drastic drop in the number.
“The airline also curtailed its domestic operations and a lot of its operations did not really take place and the number of flights it had going to their destinations really dropped, that is what led to these droppings even in the number of passengers that were carried.”.
He said over 132 complaints lodged by passengers were resolved, affirming that work was on-going on pending cases.
Abdullahi said the NCAA in 2017 sanctioned two foreign carriers and a domestic operator over violation of passenger rights. He said the airlines were sanctioned for “failure/refusal to implement directives issued by the NCAA on protection of consumer interest an offence that attracts N2 million penalty.
The other airline, he said, was sanctioned for being discourteous to passengers, an offence that attracts a minimum of N20,000.
He said: ”The regulations are very clear. When you do something wrong, there is a sanction attached to it, even a simple thing as being discourteous to passengers the regulations clearly spells out what the airlines are suppose to pay.
“These sanctions are broken down to minimum, moderate and maximum.
”If an airline staff member is discourteous to a passenger for instance, a minimum sanction of N50,000 applies. There is a moderate sanction of N100,000 and maximum sanction of N200,000 and if you can prove that it happened and finds the airline liable, it has to pay that sanction.“
Abdullahi said the reason for sanctions was not to witch-hunt any carrier, but to put airlines on the right path to improve their services.
Said he: “As much as possible in the Consumer and Protection Directorate, we have not been sanctioning an airline because we believe sanction is not a way of improving services.
“The way to improving service really is to show both the airline and passenger what they have done wrong and how to make amends.
“Airlines know that when they renege on promises, they know we have the big stick and we will wield it but we do not make noise about it.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authrity Director- General, Captain Muktar Usman, said 2017 was a safe year for aviation as the sector recorded no accident in the commercial schedules.
He said the same feat was achieved in 2016, adding that the regulatory authority would further consolidate on the achievements in the year.
The only incidents recorded were on the aircraft on tarmac.
Speaking with reporters in Lagos, Usman attributed the feat to the implementation of requisite safety programmes by all authorities concerned, saying the authority kept close tap on airli res to do the right thing.
According to him, reports of accidents released in the previous year also helped to deepen safety programmes in the sector.
He said, “It was through a lot of hard work, training and surveillance, inspections and we want to do more on that this year.
Meanwhile, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has released the 2017 Preliminary Report of the global civil aviation.
The report indicates a new record of 4.1 billion passengers ferried on scheduled services last year.
The report indicates a seven-point one per cent increase over that of the previous year.
It indicates that the number of departures rose to 37 million globally expressed in terms of total scheduled revenue passenger-kilometres (RPKs), posting an increase of 7.6 per cent with 7.7 trillion RPKs performance.
ICAO Council President Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu attributed the performance of the civil air transportation to continuous improvement in safety, security efficiency and efforts by national, regional bodies to comply with aviation regulations.
Aliu said: “The sustainability of the tremendous growth in international civil air traffic is demonstrated by the continuous improvements to its safety, security, efficiency and environmental footprint.
“This sustainability is the result of concerted efforts and cooperation at the national, regional, and global levels, particularly in terms of ICAO compliancy, which is key to accessing the global network.
“Last year also, we were able to work very hard in the retention of the Category One Federal Aviation certification for Nigeria. It is one thing to attain, it is another to sustain. Our pledge this year is that we would continue to sustain whatever certification we have and also to build on the successes we recorded last year.”
