Director of Consumer Protection, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, AdamuAbdullahi, has assured air travellers that the rehabilitation work on the Abuja airport runway will not exceed six weeks. He also spoke on high air fares and challenges facing Nigerian airlines.
How do you see the government directive to foreign airline to move their Abuja operations to Kaduna?
The airlines have to make a commercial decision whether to go to Kaduna or not, some which didn’t go like British Airways, issued a notice that they have cancelled their flights but they were not allowed to move those slots to Lagos to double their Lagos frequencies. And you know that there is no code-share between the foreign airlines and Nigerian operators so that the local airlines could help to their passengers farther. Ideally, if they doubled their Lagos flights then they would have a local carrier that will be moving their passengers from here to Kaduna.
Now how do you see the position of the passengers in this case?
We don’t envisage having problems with BA, they have been in the business for long and in such circumstances they know what to do. They know what the regulation says. The regulation is very clear. They have cancelled their flights on time, I am positive that by now they have started making refunds to passengers. So the passengers will be free to go and buy another ticket from another airline to keep their appointment. Because really going to Kaduna or not is a commercial decision, the government cannot force airlines to go to Kaduna. Because any aircraft that leaves any destination A, going to destination B always has an alternate airport, destination C, in case of any problem with destination B that it is going to, it can always land in C.So what the government did was to now provide Kaduna as alternate to Abuja that is airport C. so the decision is really on the airline, if it wants to go to that alternate airport fine and good. If not, the government cannot come out and say you must go to Kaduna; it is not something that the government can force them to do. Yes the passengers have a say in such circumstance, if the passengers insist with the airlines and agree with the airlines that they would carry them to whatever destination they are going to and no complains come to my desk, then I don’t have any quarrel with that. It is the decision of airlines versus passengers; they decide among themselves what they want to do. It is more or less a contract of carriage between the two of them; therefore, it is their decision.
People are feeling that the six weeks given for the completion of work on the runway might be exceeded; are you optimistic that it will just be six weeks?
I am solidly behind my Minister of State, Aviation, Senator HadiSirika. The Minister said not a minute above six weeks and I am taking him for his words and I appeal to the public to also take him for his words and pray for him to succeed rather than start to cast doubts or to have doubts in their minds. Our prayer is that it will take six weeks and we believe that the six weeks that he has already mentioned is sacrosanct.
You know that Arik cancelled all its international flights and curbed their regional and local flights. I want you to look at the impact, what is the impact on the passengers of a Nigerian airline that has dominated the West Coast?
Seriously the Arik story is a tragedy; that is the only way you can look at it. This is a very, very promising airline. When it started all of us were happy that we are not going to miss a national carrier, they have the capacity. At a state they had up to 28 aircraft, so we believed then that all the routes were covered and they were. Because at a stage they were doing 120, 150 flights in Lagos alone. Then all of a sudden things started to go the way they were going.
We kept giving the warnings because the signals were there but once you kept maltreating passengers the way Arik did, the only way is down, because the passengers will no longer have the confidence in you. Air travel is about confidence, it is just like you and your banker, your doctor, you and your airline should be about the same thing. Promise should be sacrosanct, when they tell you that they will leave at 3 o’clock let it be 3 o’clock. And they didn’t try in that direction at all, more importantly even when they could prove that the delay or the cancellation was really beyond them they didn’t do what they were supposed to do. They didn’t go by the regulations, they leave the passenger on the airport even late in the night, they won’t take them to hotel as the regulations say they should.
They will be arguing left, right and centre. Even giving refreshment was a major problem with Arik and things like that. So what has happened has happened and as you asked the impact is really great. But the way we have tried to resolve it is when the passengers started agitating, we asked Arik to advertise and tell passengers that they have canceled this flight and that the passengers should come for refunds which the passengers did. They came and at a stage there was a really a stalemate because Arik could not keep to its promise, their accounts were garnished, we understood with them and we explain to the passengers that for the meantime they had to hold.
The Minister made entreaties withAsset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) (which garnished the airline accounts) and AMCON understood that they have commitment to their passengers and they have to refund those tickets.
Medview really tried in this instance because they agreed to pick most of the passengers especially to London Gatwick where they go to. So most Arik UK passengers joined Medview Airline and most of them have really left; unless, of course, you have booked in advance but those that were supposed to leave at the time at that time had left. And it is still an ongoing thing, even this morning (March 6, 2017) I had an alert on my phone that somebody is happy that his family that was stuck has finally left and they have now gone with Medview.
The other issue is the economy aspect that you are talking about. Arik used to sell its ticket in naira and even when the exchange rate became very high people were able to afford Arik tickets because they were buying in naira. Now that Arik has really scaled down its operations our only prayer is that things will look up. As of this morning Arik was promising that they were trying to see the possibility of bringing five more aircraft into their fleet. If they can do that, I know that the operations will go up more. And this issue of retrenchment of staff is something that really bugs my mind because sending 1,500 aviation staff into the market is not the best of times. People are already suffering with jobs and they know what will happen. So we pray that things will look up and these additional five aircraft and more will come back into their fleet so that their operations will continue; especially the wide bodied aircraft, the two that they have, we want to see those aircraft back in the system. Once they do that I am positive that the international operations will resume and things will be looking up. But for now it looks very bleak and so they need prayers, the new management of Arik need prayers and we are praying very hard for them and guiding them and showing them the way and generally we bend over backwards to be of assistance to them because Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs) all over the world are supposed to grow the industry, so in doing that we help them.
Talking about growing the industry, an operator that is into charter said if NCAA decides to carry out economic regulation, insists that airlines pay all the debt, pay salary as at when due, that almost all the airlines will be shutdown. That what is happening in the economy is reflecting on the airlines. What is your reaction to that?
We agree but as a CAA the major contention we have with the airlines is this 5% charge that they have refused pay. The 5% is not really a charge on the airlines; it is the passengers that pay that money. And we have tried to make the airlines understand that all they are doing is to collect government revenue on behalf of government. So give us back what is due to us so that we can oversight you because NCAA does not get kobo from the government. We depend on that 5% that we get to run all our affairs.
The issue of salary is something that is also contentious because, the pilot, the crew and even the engineer that you have not paid his salary is an accident waiting to happen. This is because his mind will not be on his work. Remember vividly the Associated aircraft accident; that was what the pilot and the co-pilot were discussing before they crashed. It was on record that was what they were discussing. So these are things that we have to really take seriously and know that the airlines must pay their staff salaries.
That is the only one we are very, very insistent on. The other ones are really commercial decisions; we don’t come into it. If they owe their fuel suppliers for instance, their caterers, the handling companies, we will advise them to pay something, even our own we keep telling them to pay some amount. It is only when they come to renew their Air Operator Certificates (AOCs), renew pilot license, crew licenses, that we will tell them to come and pay what they owe.
Now there are fewer aircraft and more passengers with Arik down, what is the impact of that to passengers because fares are high?
Fares are very high, I just bought to and fro ticket to Kano from Lagos on Azman Air N40, 000 to Kano and N35, 000 return, that is N75, 000. It is not everybody that can afford that because you know what people are facing. It is not air fare that is exactly everybody’s priority at the moment, everybody wants to eat, that is the most important thing for now. So it is an issue of demand and supply, the aircraft are not there like you pointed out and then the cost of operation also is very high. If Jet A1 goes for N280 per liter you should expect that you must pay a very high rate. If most of the crew we have to pay in dollars and you know the cost of dollar now, spare parts come in dollars, the aircraft itself, insurance, almost everything in aviation is in dollars. And dollar has gone hare wire; therefore it is a reflection of what is going on generally in the country that is also happening in aviation.
Things have started looking up because we have seen how the dollar issue is now stabilizing and with that we expect that we will have a better business climate and we are hopeful that it will now enable airlines to service their aircraft. We are waiting for their return of the ones that were ferried overseas, so we are very hopeful that now they will have the wherewithal to bring back these aircraft so that they can join their fleet.
What do you think would be the impact on the air travel market generally in Nigeria, considering the long term consequence of limited aircraft in service, the high fares and the recession?
For a very long time aviation has been trying to woo passengers from other modes of transport, unfortunately Nigeria does not have a very active railway service so everything that happens, happens by road. The road has also become really tough because the roads are really bad and the security challenges are there when you go by road and the fares are really much higher than they used to be even going by road. So it is going to be very difficult to woo back most of the passengers once they leave aviation because once you taste road, you find out you can travel cheaper and you find that you arrived in one piece to your destination you will be tempted to try again. But nothing will ever beat aviation because it is the fastest mode of transportation and the safest means of transport; therefore, nothing beats it. With time everything will still come back to aviation.
What advice do you have for the passenger as a regulatory body and what word do you have for the final movement from Kaduna to Abuja after the closure?
Well, the government has done its own beat, a lot of effort has gone into putting Kaduna in shape and I would say that, that is a job well done. We should give ourselves kudos. The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has done what it’s supposed to do, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has been there permanently, in fact the Managing Director moved there permanently and most of his directors are on ground. And I would say so far they have done a wonderful job. Kaduna State government came in, and came in a very, very big way because some things that looked impossible in the Nigeria have happened. They have done the roads, the roads from the airport to the rail station are almost done, I am positive that by Monday (March 13) that road will be commissioned. That road also leaves the railway station and comes out to the bypass and the bypass has also been done. The Kaduna- Abuja road as you have noted has also been commissioned and they have finished all the patched work.
So once the roads are there and you even have an alternative of railway and the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) has promised that they are going to add more trains and coaches on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line, I believe that we don’t envisage having any problems. The buses are ready to convey the passengers, helicopter services are also coming up to provide service for those that can afford it at N50,000 and some people can afford that, so they can go ahead.
In terms of security, the police have planned it in a very good way. They will deploy helicopter service there. They are going to survey the environment from up there to make sure that passengers are safe. There won’t be check points per say, but there will be police presence; they will be monitoring and seeing what is going on. The Federal Road Safety (FRSC) will control traffic whenever there is any hiccups, they will be there to direct traffic. So we don’t envisage having any problems. Whatever happens, we are talking of six weeks; six weeks is really a short while if you come to think of it. So this is something that we believe will come to pass. So we implore passengers to exercise a lot of restraint, plan their journeys very well.
THISDAY
