Africa has the least air connectivity in the world, according to aviation industry experts. It is an indubitable fact that a Nigerian that wants to go to Equatorial Guinea, which is about 30 minutes away from Calabar, would have to go to Dakar or Abidjan first to connect flight to the country that shares shoreline with Nigeria.
The Director General of the Nigerian Civil Avition Authority (NCAA), Captain Muhtar Usman told THISDAY last year that poor air connectivity in Africa, especially in West and Central Africa was retarding the realisation of the economic potential of the sub-regions. That is why government is supporting the Yamoussoukro Declaration (YD), which tends to eliminate regional boundaries for open airspace for airlines from the continent.
“We have very poor connectivity within Africa. Once we implement the YD I believe that connectivity in Africa will improve. You can imagine somebody going to Brazzaville; you cannot take direct flight. Last time I attempted it I had to go through Lome to Kinshasa and from Kinshasa to Brazzaville. Then coming back I had to fly from Brazzaville to Kinshasa and then overflew Nigeria and went to Abidjan, stayed on ground for nine hours and connected a flight back to Nigeria. This is a flight that will take not more than two and half hours from Lagos that I spent a whole day and almost a whole night,” Usman said.
But aviation business operators in Nigeria are saying that the lack of connectivity is their niche market, but unfortunately private jet service, including fractional ownership system, is seen as epitomising opulence; even though it is a necessity for business. This was the colouration given it when politicians and highly placed individuals began to acquire private jets as a showcase of their wealth in a country where the poor still drown the middle class.
This gave rise to prejudice that has become a stigma. Nevertheless, the Chairman of ANAP Business Jets, AtedoPeterside insists that charter services and unscheduled flight operations are inevitable for the businessman and woman that must traverse African destinations to do business.
“Business aviation is a necessity in Africa because Africa is a large continent geographically and the major urban centres are interspersed. It is not easy, for instance, to fly efficiently from Abuja to Yaounde on a commercial flight. To get to Yaounde from Abuja, you may have to fly from Abuja to Lagos to Douala and then on to Yaounde. You then have to go back the same way. The entire journey might take you three or four days – meanwhile, you are going to attend a one or two hour meeting in Yaounde”, Peterside told THISDAY in an interview about two years ago.
In his presentation at the African Business Aviation Association (AFBAA) Regional Symposium/Nigerian Business Aviation Conference held in Lagos last week, titled; “Perception of Business Aviation in West Africa and How to Affect It”, Peterside noted: “Business Aviation has a terrible reputation in West Africa. Unfortunately, private jets are still seen in the region as expensive toys for playboy millionaires, insensitive and wasteful Heads of States/senior government officials or politicians and others who acquired their wealth through questionable means. And yet it need not be so.”
According to him, private jets could be and are indeed an indispensable and efficient tool for big business in a West Africa region where efficient travel between neighbouringcapital cities could still be a nightmare because many of Nigeria’s airlines are seriously challenged.
“Traffic between many of the smaller urban centres is not large enough to support regular scheduled services. For instance, three flights a week between Lagos and Freetown means that, to attend a three- hour Tuesday morning meeting in Freetown, a Nigerian business delegation may have to depart Lagos on Saturday morning and only get back home on Thursday afternoon.
“Even travel between capitals of two neighbouring countries e.g. Abuja and Yaoundé remains a daunting task in 2017. As a general rule, commercial flights are only available to and from major hubs. Point-to-point travel, which bypasses hubs, is therefore only possible in West Africa via business aviation,” Peterside said.
He said ANAP Business Jets Limited is on a mission to correct the narrative surrounding business aviation in West Africa and, so far, “we are succeeding. Serious business people are surprised when they discover that, by embracing the fundamentals behind a “sharing economy”, a modest financial outlay through the ANAP Jets fractional ownership platform can significantly transform their businesses by giving them access to a private jet “on demand” for a few years.”
According toPeterside, this helps to eradicate their regional travelling headaches in a most efficient manner, noting that the idea of sharing economy in fractional ownership enables one to pay less and fly more.
“The first time I realised that private jets had become an essential or indispensable business tool in our region was when I had a series of meetings with successful mining companies in Western Australia some years ago. I was trying to sell them the West African mining story. Miners typically bring out large maps and when you discuss specific mineral deposits with them, their first question was: ‘Where is the nearest airport or airstrip from that location?’” Peterside added.
However, THISDAY gathered that there have been a lull in the charter business since the past one and half years because of the economic downturn and because of the anti-corruption fight of the present administration, which makes some highly placed business men and women and politicians to operate low-key.
But all these seem to eclipse the importance of business aviation and the critical need of charter services to connect all the destinations that cannot be connected by commercial flights in West and Central Africa.
