Air travellers from Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leon, The Gambia and other countries in the West Coast have shunned travelling through Nigeria to other long-distance destinations because of wrong negative perception of Nigeria as insecure country.
President of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Nigeria (AOPAN), Dr Alex Nwuba and the Managing Director of Aero Contractors, Captain Ado Sanusi, said that such perception, which needs to be corrected is the reason why some travellers from West and Central Africa have to travel to Europe before connecting flights to another African country.
The experts noted that Nigeria is a natural hub by its location but it is yet to maximise the opportunity offered by its location and the fact that it has the highest number of airlines that operate in West and Central Africa.
Dr Nwuba and Sansui, who was represented by Head of Sales at Aero Contractors, Mr Benedict Oluwafemi, spoke at JustAlive Communications Limited Maiden Summit themed: ‘Nigeria’s Transport Infrastructure: Innovation for a Sustainable Future,’ held in Lagos.
In his speech, Nwuba explained that Nigeria’s transit challenges should not be blamed on infrastructure, but on the fact that Nigeria’s neigbours believe that the country is a dangerous place to travel through, noting that such wrong perception must be addressed to cultivate trust and confidence in the minds of potential travellers from the West Coast.
He also said that Nigerian carriers should look at their operational model and review it to be in tandem with international practices and also meet the expectation of the travellers.
“We blame the transit challenge on infrastructure, but that is not the fact. Infrastructure plays a very minimal role in transiting passengers. Even if we had a shed and the appropriate transit structure from the airline’s point of view, people would come to that shed and go to their destinations. But why hasn’t that happened? If you look at our airlines, for instance, you are going to Freetown, they don’t aggregate from various markets domestically and internationally and take you to Freetown. Our airlines will take you to Ghana and transit you to Freetown.
“We have not addressed the issue within our airline design. The other problem is the experience Nigerian passengers get when they fly through somewhere like Turkey. Their experience would make them not want to fly Turkish airlines again when going to Europe. It would shock you to know that even if we had the perfect infrastructure, the average Beninese, our next-door neighbour, would not fly through Lagos. That is because of the perception issue. Our neighbours perceive Nigeria as a dangerous place. Lagos airport is not considered as a friendly place through which to travel. They all believe that potentially, they will be victims of one criminal activity or the other. That is the perception that exists as the reality out there. So, if you like, build the most fantastic facility, people are not coming.”
Meanwhile, Captain Sanusi, who was represented by Oluwafemi, lamented the infrastructure gaps at the airports, saying airlines’ operational costs were also increasing because the facilities have become porous, which has allegedly allowed persons to pilfer bags of passengers.
“If you come into our airports, you would see that the infrastructure needs a lot of work. What is the processing time a customer needs to pass through the terminal? What type of structures should we put in place to ensure that their experiences at the end of their flight are better? In the last few months, maybe a month or two, we have had increase in pilferage at the airports. One of the challenges that we have also is increasing costs. The economy of this country is not friendly to businesses. The policies of this country need to improve so that everybody who needs to contribute to the well-being of the nation can actually see something that is worth the effort of putting in their money.”
