Aviation stakeholders who attended LAAC Conference in Lagos
Aviation industry experts on Thursday urged Nigerian airlines to engage in partnership, interlining in order to maximise opportunities and operate profitably.
The experts who spoke at the 22nd annual seminar of League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) in Lagos noted that airlines can cooperate on passenger movement, aircraft maintenance by pulling resources together.
The Chairman of the African Business Aviation Association (AfBAA) and former Secretary General of African Airlines Association (AFRAA), Nick Fadugba who gave the keynote address at the seminar, noted that successful airlines all over the world work together despite competition.
Fadugba said that one airline flying from Lagos to Ilorin could have its own passengers and passengers of another airline in a code-share partnership.
In that way the two airlines cannot deploy two aircraft to the same route and in doing so they maximise load factor, save fuel and expenses on logistics.
The Chairman of the occasion who is also the Chairman and CEO of Air Peace Airlines, Allen Onyema reinforced Fadugba’s views on cooperation.
He said one of the challenges facing the operators in the sector is the lack of trust among airlines in the industry which is a drawback in competing favourably with foreign carriers.
Onyema said despite the size of the legacy carriers in the aviation industry, they still find ways to interline their operations in order to maiximise opportunities.
He, however, frowned at the multiple entry points in which the federal government gives approval to foreign airlines to operate to multiple airports in the country at the expense of domestic carriers.
This enables one international carrier to land in two to five airports in the country, thus shrinking the domestic market for domestic airlines.
According to him, multi designation by foreign carriers into the country is not a good sign for domestic operators in the industry.
He noted that there is nowhere in the world where foreign carriers are allowed unfettered entry to operate freely in a country’s aviation sector without government restriction, adding that such only happens in Nigeria.
He added that foreign carriers should not be allowed to more than two entry points into the country, stating that they should be made to interline with the domestic carriers to grow the industry.
Onyema faulted government’s endorsement of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), when it is obvious that it would not enhance the operations of local airlines; rather, other African carriers would have unfettered access to the Nigerian market.
He said the government gave support to SAATM without carrying domestic operators along and urged government to provide level playing field in the principle of reciprocity.
