The Director of the Consumer Protection Directorate of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Mr. Adamu Abdullahi, spoke on the lingering aviation fuel scarcity and why foreign airlines should be allowed to repatriate their revenues. Excerpts:
Tell us some of the feedback you have been getting from the scarcity of aviation fuel in terms of passengers and the airlines relations?
It is very, very bad but you know that Jet A1 is deregulated, so what happens is that if you have your dollar or you are into that kind of business, you source your dollars and buy Jet A1 from outside the country, bring it into the country and sell to the airlines. But the dollar scarcity has hit every nook and cranny of our country that is where the problem is. Because you source the dollar at CBN rate, you have to join the queue and you know it normally takes time and if you go to buy in the black market, it is in the region of 340 and 350 per dollar. I don’t know which airline will be able to buy that kind of fuel from you and any gain out of their operations.
That is why this scarcity is now on but what people should also understand is that we have been to fuel stations and we have queued overnight. We have been in fuel stations for long hours, we have slept in our houses without light not because we don’t have generator but because there is no fuel to power the generator. So the same way that we have exercised patience and things now improved; it is the same way that passengers have to exercise patients and see that things are going to improve. I am sure that this dollar scarcity will not last forever, that is one; secondly government is looking at the possibility, giving the interactive that our Minister held along with the Minister of State for Petroleum resources last week, that some of the refineries, Kaduna and Port Harcourt to be specific, that used to refine Jet A1, they are trying to make sure that such a thing happen again so that we can start refining in the country before the end of the year. Also some of the refineries that are coming on stream, there are some which are going to be dedicated only for the production of Jet A1, that is in the long-term future plan but in the present everybody has to exercise patience.
Airlines have to carry the passengers along because we have to tell them the truth. Once you give the passenger any reason whatsoever to doubt you and doubt your sincerity, when you say I have 20 minutes delay and then 20 minutes becomes one hour, and one hour becomes six hours, then 10 hours; in the long run it is at 9: 00 pm in the night that you decide to cancel your flight and you expect the passengers to just go home; it is not the best. If you know that this thing is not going to materialise, then allow passengers to take back their money to go and buy from any other airline that is operating; so you have to be sincere with the passengers that this flight is not flying because there is no Jet A1.
Passengers will now make alternative plan or they go back home and try the next day. So, either way, both airlines and passengers have to be sincere to each other and things will work out fine.
So far has there been compliant from the side of the passengers and from the side of the airlines?
We have had such issues, yesterday night alone we had that issue in Abuja airport when Accra bound passengers out of Abuja had the same kind of problem when the flight was cancelled around 9-10 pm. Yes it is agreed that supply of Jet A1 is beyond the powers of Arik and other airlines, it is more even outside aviation but then the fact is Arik has checked in these passengers and they have given them boarding passes, if you have done so these passengers belong to you and are at your care, according to the regulations on the airline. So we were able to convince Arik to provide them accommodation because that is the right thing to do and they normally take to our advice and they did what they are supposed to do. Another area we looked at is for the airlines to have dedicated suppliers. Some airlines have Oando as their supplier; some others go to Sahara Oil. So all the airlines have their own dedicated suppliers of fuel. So it is whenever your own supplier is out of stock that is when you fall into problems because you just have to start running around, looking at suppliers who are also suppliers to maybe your own rivals. And these people will not be able to supply you fuel because they have to supply their own people first. Therefore, there is always that belief that how come so and so flight is operating why this one is not operating? It depends on whether the marketer this airline has been dealing with has stock or not.
There is an allegation by the domestic operators that the marketers prefer to sell to foreign airlines because of the contract they have and that by Sunday and Monday they were rationing fuel? Is it because the international carriers pay in foreign currency?
I would rather not be dragged into such controversies. Do you know why? It is because airlines and their marketers have contractual agreement. This is purely a business contract; it doesn’t have anything to do with the regulator. So therefore I would rather that airlines and their suppliers sort out their own differences if any. And all we are after is to have smooth operations in the airport, so for now lets believe that it is genuine scarcity that is happening. But come to think of it, even on Sunday, we had issues with most of the foreign airlines; most of them couldn’t take off.
They had to remain in the country and most of the airlines started operating only yesterday night (Monday) or towards afternoon even yesterday because the scarcity was so bad on Sunday night. And you have to pity these airlines, most of them have close to 300 passengers, to look for accommodation for 300 people and the multitude of airlines, it is not a small job. Most of the airlines also have contract agreements with these hotels. Everything in aviation is not a come and pay basis; that cannot be possible, you have to have some kind of agreement that they have to pay in arrears for services because there is no way upfront for services. So these hotels that they have contractual agreement with if by any chance they are filled up what happens?
So all these are really issues that we do have to contend with but then scarcity is scarcity, we have to understand that. We have slept in filling stations looking for fuel, this time around it is the turn of aviation fuel and passengers and airlines. We just have to contend with it and be rest assured that the Ministry is doing everything at its possible best and the management of NCAA is also working.
It has been suggested that marketers prefer to import petrol to importing aviation fuel because that is more profitable because of demand so they do quicker turnover. Do you think that is affecting the availability of Jet A1?
Again, it is a business decision that involves marketers of petroleum and petroleum products. I am not in the position to know and I don’t believe that the two will share the same value neither will they share the same market because aviation fuel market is much different from PMS market. You spoke about dollar content; that is very important because if foreign airlines buy their fuel in dollars, them it means that a lot will come to a fuel market who decides to import Jet A1 rather than PMS. But like I said earlier it is purely a business decision.
With many airports under construction, how does this affect passenger comfort?
Yesterday (Monday) there was an aviation stakeholders forum in Abuja, some of the pictures that the Honourable Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika presented at that forum really are very, very frightening and pathetic. He himself contended that he is surprised at how pilots manoevre on the Abuja runway. He showed us photographs of potholes on the Abuja runway and that portends a lot of danger. Because on landing, aircraft can hit that pothole and before you know it, there will be something else. So these are things that we have to contend with. The issue is airport development is far, far beyond doing the cosmetics. The cosmetics are this terminal buildings that we are building left, right and center; meanwhile, we know that our airsides are not really safe. We don’t have lights in most of our runways so therefore it curtails our operations, apart from the 4-5 major international airports; you have only daylight operations in most of the airports. So that strains the operations of the airlines because where ever you are going to if it is daylight operations you have to ensure that you go in and out before sunset.
And also you have to look at delaying operations into airports with lights until late night and that does not augur well with businessmen who are really going on that trip that want to go and sign or indulge in one business or the other. If you take me to Abuja at 2:00 am and then abandon me there, you are adding to my cost because I have to look for a hotel to sleep in, I have to take taxi to town at exorbitant rate because it is not day. I have to look at other issue pertaining to my security and it is not the best for my business.
So these are things that really should be addressed, it is beyond just the cosmetics. There are times when this country is virtually shut down during Christmas period when most of the passengers in this country need air services, that is when harmattan sets in and that is when you will find out that most flights have to be cancelled because we don’t have landing aids. So these are things that we should look at to develop rather than the cosmetics. That is exactly the thinking of the current Minister of State for Aviation during the interactive that he had yesterday with the stakeholders in aviation.
He was talking seriously looking at such issues as concession of airports, issues such as other businesses available in the airport apart from just the aeronautical business of operating an airline and other things that are related to just airline operations. Look at the issue of hotels for instance, we just finished talking about cancelled flights and that hotels are over stretched, it is time we have the large operators, like Sheraton, Hiltons, they should have been in our airports long ago but as you can see the atmosphere is not there. Because of that over the years we have not had serious hotel operator coming into the airports, not even Lagos. Look at the issue of perishable cargo terminals that we started talking about during the last administration when they took about 16 and at the long run not one was realised.
So the Minister is now looking at six, and if the farmer in Katsina gets his tomatoes, onions and pepper out of Katsina on a daily basis and put on your table in Lagos that afternoon or that night it will be much better than to transport everything by road at a loss.
I pity most of the farmers that transport tomatoes by road; I pity them because when they go on the road and there is a breakdown the whole thing is gone. It deteriorates and before you know it the whole thing turns to water and it is dripping on the floor. These are things that if you have good cargo system and some good cargo airlines that can ship these things, it is a matter of one hour from Katsina to Port Harcourt, Lagos or Enugu. And the things that are needed up north you just take them back. All these cows that you see being transported by road, these is archaic, these are things that don’t happen anywhere in the world. You don’t see live cows being transported on the road. You take care of the cows there. In Bauchi we had a meat factory a long time ago, which if it were operational would have the capacity of dressing 5000 cows per day. If you can dress 5000 cows per day you can get a refrigerator cargo aircraft, you can do one leap drop in Kano, drop in Abuja, drop in Lagos, Port Harcourt, go back to Bauchi sleep there the next day you take another 5000 this is good business. And people are not thinking in that direction. And if you have the meat and you have the refrigerator cargo aircraft; cargo doesn’t complain, it will not say you have delayed me, it will not say that your terminal is not well lighted, it will not say your toilet is dirty, so cargo is much easier to handle than human beings.
Let’s talk about luggage losses and delays, what is the level of complaint? How would you rate airlines operations in Nigeria?
Any airline that comes into this country from abroad does so by the dictates of the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) it signed with Nigeria. In the case of Turkish Airlines, what Nigerian and Turkey had that our Ministers signed between the dotted lines was that Turkish Airlines was free to operate any kind of aircraft into and out of Nigeria, so it is a commercial decision. If Turkish Airlines feels like using a 737 to come into Nigeria on a daily basis, to come into Abuja, as the case was, everyday there is nothing wrong with that. But if as it happens during the Yuletide, the baggage that Nigeria had was more than the capacity of the aircraft; they are supposed to look at that and then increase the capacity of the aircraft to a wide body aircraft so that the baggage could come along with the passengers. But the MC (Montreal Convention) 1999 which we have domesticated in Nigeria and which Turkey also operates as well as all the international airlines and indeed domestic airlines have to operate under does not say categorically that every passenger must come with his baggage. So if by any chance you come and your baggage does not come along with you then there are compensation regimes that the airline is suppose to pay you. This is what is called first needs. It is generally $50, if the airline pays that $50 then you can go and your bag normally is taken to you wherever you are when it arrives.
You come as a visitor, take it to you hotel room, after you have given them your address. If you are going to your own house, give your house address and the bag will be carried to your house. It is the peculiarity of Nigeria that has made it that almost impossible here because the Nigerian Customs Service insists that they it physically open and check every bag. And the owner of the bag is going to be there before his bag is going to be opened and checked. That is why Nigerian passengers usually come back to the airport to collect their bags. So what Turkish did was to give each and every passenger N10, 000 per day that represent about the $50 we are talking about. At the bank rate it is still within that rate. They were given N10, 0000 a daily to cater for their first needs. Some of the people whose bags were delayed for seven days, eight days, and 10 days got N70, 000, N80, 000 and N100, 000 respectively as the case maybe.
Turkish Airline had a form that these people all signed to collect, and in so doing they have also committed themselves and thrown away their rights. So the passenger do not have any right whatsoever to now come back after collecting that money and then say that you must collect that bag that day; or to go and break into the airside of the airport to go and block an aircraft from flying. That is an offence that is punishable by life imprisonment, according to the regulation. That is case of a hijack but they did not seem to understand that all these things were wrong. We have the data. So we looked at all these things which they have all signed and their addresses are there, what we are telling the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) now is that since this thing happen in the aerodrome and Turkish Airlines, as far as we are concerned, and we have given all these facts to the Honourable Minister who has agreed with us that Turkish airlines has no blame whatsoever in that thing that happened. We can identify the passengers, because we have their passport and the form .So the onus is now on FAAN to prosecute them, if they want to.
This is important because this led to the suspension of some senior officers in Abuja. So they should make sure that this thing is taken to its final conclusion. Another thing that also happened is that we now held meetings with Turkish Airlines and advise them. The BASA is very clear, it says you can bring in any form of aircraft, don’t you think you are losing a lot of money just by paying this first needs. Turkish operate five flights into Abuja every week then, so we now agree with that twice a week they will come with large body aircraft and with small body aircraft thrice a week, and that is what they are operating now. And we don’t envisage that kind of problem to arise again. Civil aviation authorities are supposed to encourage and build up the industry, they are not supposed to kill the industry. So even if there are compensation regime that Turkish are supposed to pay, the fact that we have made amends counts and in aviation that is what matters. How to improve and how to make sure that there is no recurrence of what happened, and we have done that. That is why accident investigation investigates accidents, not because the lives are going to be returned but so that it will avert future occurrence. So that is what we also do here in consumer protection.
Whenever we have breakdown or disruption in services we go to the root cause to find out what it is that caused that delay, the cancellation, rather than punish the airline and most times not due to its fault we will rather make corrections so that such a thing does not happen again and that is what we try to address.
Customs, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency create opportunities to have interface with passengers, which creates opportunity to pressure passengers for bribes, does regulation support this kind of acts?
Not really, they are not dictating what should happen at the airports. You see, all the agencies have their own mandate and they have their own rules also and they have their own acts that established them, the same way that NCAA has its own regulations. So if customs say by their own regulations this is what we must do. If immigration says by its own regulations, first time travelers must do this, you cannot come in and say no; according to our own regulations first time travelers must not. So these are things that we have to really contend with in the airports.
The decision that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) made that each airport must have customs, immigration, did not come from nowhere, it has a reason. Yes, things are happening but really neither you nor I can change things for now. Automation is the answer, they have done it in the cargo section, the same Customs you are talking about have succeeded in doing it in cargo. When you cargo things from abroad, you don’t have to see any Customs officer, everything you do is online, you even pay online if you want to or you go to a bank and pay. You don’t go to customs to pay for goods now to clear goods. In the same manner I am sure they will also do that with the passenger section. We have the machinery and the wherewithal to also do that without having to resort to opening bags because opening of bags is archaic and barbaric, you are exposing a person’s personal belongings in public, it is not right. So I am sure things are going to improve.
How do you explain the sudden fare hike by foreign airlines and what has been your response to this increase in fares on international routes?
Really it has to with the Directorate of Air Transport Regulation (DATR), not CPD. The way it affects me is the fact that passengers of course will complain. I have had high profile passengers complaining of this same issue. But then you have to also think of what the airlines are going through. Think of the fact that they cannot repatriate their monies back to their countries as dictated by your BASA agreement. Because the BASA agreement that we signed with those countries gave them the right to repatriate whatever sales they have in Naira here, convert it in dollars and send to their country. But dollar has become what it has become and it is only now that the Ministry has come up and it is trying its very best to see the airlines get priority attention so that the airlines will be able to repatriate their funds back to their mother countries.
Meanwhile, the airlines are left with a lot of naira that they don’t have use for. You can’t use it to buy spare parts, you cannot take it back to your country, you can’t pay for most of your services or lease aircraft with that. So this is a thing that they now have to contend with. The way they do it is, you know there are so many classes of ticket, so the cheaper ones have been blocked. That is what they did. They blocked it so that even if you are buying one class of ticket you find out that it is really on the high side. But this is to take care of the fact that most time they have to resort to the black market to change their dollars. And they are not finding it funny at all; they are not finding it easy. So in balancing, that is why Nigerians are paying more for the services. And you can’t blame them. You can take Arik and pay in naira or you can take Med-view now and pay in naira.
So the more we have our own local airlines joining the fray the better it is for the Nigerian aviation industry, that is exactly what the Minister was canvassing for yesterday (Monday). That all BASA are supposed to be reciprocated; therefore, if you can now have an airlines that do that we will have the same problems with their country of how to repatriate money for tickets sold in their own country back here. Now that we have Arik going to London, we have Med-view going to London and they sell tickets in pounds sterling there and they are free to repatriate their pounds sterling back here then you can now use these pounds sterling to also allow this other people to repatriate. So it is a simple balancing act, the balance is not there that is why we are facing these problems.
Would you say that Nigerian airlines are now implementing the regulations of the Consumer Protection Directorate?
By and large yes and we have made it even much easier for them. The revised regulation has increased the time that you have to give refreshments from one hour to two hours. Because the airlines are under the umbrella of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the body came to us as we are doing our regulations, when you do regulations in NCAA you have to carry the stakeholders along. So stakeholders are free to come and make their observations and make their input, agree and disagree and all that. So, in one of those parleys, they came under the umbrella of IATA and said one hour is really too short a time to allow them to sort out their issues.
So, which one will they be doing, will they be sorting out the issues that they have to make the flight leave or they will be looking for refreshment to give to passengers? So they wanted to be moved to two hours, so we agreed. The new regulation now says two hours after which you have to have serve passengers refreshment. Also the issue of refund of tickets, former regulations says after two hours of delay a person is free to go and collect back his money from the counter if he has paid from the counter or online if he has paid online or from his agent, as the case maybe. Now that has been moved to three hours that is the way it has affected our regulations and this is in view of request made by the airline. And we being sensitive CAA looked at what their request were, understood with them and agreed to that. By and large, I will say that, that will ease a lot of the problem they used to have and you would expect that since this came from them and they have the buy in then you would expect that things would really look much better now than it was before.
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