Chinedu Eze
Aviation industry stakeholders have stated that Nigerian airlines lose about N4 billion revenue annually due to inability to operate flights for longer hours.
They identified lack of airfield lighting at some airports, paucity of air traffic controllers and insecurity as reasons for the limitation of airlines to operate their aircraft for longer hours.
According to industry experts, a Boeing 737 could be operated for over 16 hours a day. However, in Nigeria only few airports operate for 24 hours and these include Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano airports. Others largely operate from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm daily and most aircraft operate only for about eight to 10 hours rotation due to ground turn around, which is gross underutilisation of the equipment.
A senior official of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), told THISDAY that beyond the absence of airfield lighting at some airports, the major challenge is that the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) does not have enough Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) personnel to run shifts, “and because of this some airports in Nigeria cannot operate beyond 6:00 to 7:00 pm daily.”
He said Air Traffic Controllers are not allowed to work longer hours because of the critical role play in safe flight operation, emphasising that stretching them could lead to dire consequences.
“We have acquired airfield lighting which we are installing at the airports that do not have them, but the major problem we have currently is that there is inadequate number of Air Traffic Controllers. ATC cannot work for long hours. So, in many airports they have to close by 6:00 pm because they do not have enough personnel to do shifts. The problem is not FAAN staff because we have enough. During Christmas period we operated some airports till 11:00 pm. When airlines request that they would operate late hours into some airports, we keep the airports open for them. We operate our power system till that time the airline will operate the last flight to that airport. But we cannot keep all the airports open because some of the airports do not have enough traffic controllers to do shift,” the FAAN official said.
This was confirmed at the weekend by the Managing Director of NAMA, Umar Ahmed Farouk, who disclosed that one of the major challenges the agency is facing is paucity of Air Traffic Controllers.
“We don’t have enough Air Traffic Controllers. The challenge is still there. This was the mistake of the past administration. There was no proper manpower auditing or proper planning. It takes time to train air traffic controllers and they are quite aware of this; yet, this neglect has gone on for many years. Now, we have decided to recruit them; it takes more than one year to train air traffic controllers that will be on the hot seat. You can imagine the gap and we can’t train hundreds of them. You can imagine the time it takes to train them. What is the turnover of that process? It takes time to get the number required. That is the challenge we are having. We are working toward making sure that that aspect is addressed,” Farouk said.
Also, the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Captain FolaAkinkuotu, told THISDAY that there is limited operational time in Nigeria compared to other parts of the world where aircraft could be utilised for a longer period of time.
He said that security and societal values play roles in why flights do not operate late in the night in Nigeria, noting that it would be difficult in cities like Abuja and Lagos where there is relative security for travellers to go to the airport by mid night and travel to another destination by 2:00 am.
“The major challenge is not airfield lighting. Many people don’t want to travel late. I agree that Nigerian airlines do not fully utilise their aircraft, but operational hours is dictated more by the situation of the society. Aircraft should fly for longer hours because they make money when they fly.
“I agree that Abuja and Lagos are relatively safe, but many people will not leave their house by 2:00 am. Another factor you have to take cognizance of is that many people who are coming to Abuja are coming to do business. If they arrive that early, where will they stay until the offices where they want to go are opened?” Akinkuotu asked.
He recalled that in the past in order to fully utilisethe aircraft, Nigerian airlines operated to destinations in the West Coast like Dakar, Senegal in the night after operating domestic routes during the day. “We used to go to operate to West Coast in the night. We fly to Dakar because the city was a cross over point to South Africa,” he said.
THISDAY learnt that some of the airports that have airfield lighting like Enugu and Calabar do not operate into the night; except when requests are made by airlines and then they would have to pay some money so that the staff of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and that of NAMA would wait for the airline’s flight to land and take off.
Former Chief Commercial Officer, Green Africa and currently Managing Partner at Saha, Obi Mbanuzuo, told THISDAY that the major factor that leads to the underutilisation of aircraft is environmental.
He said there are airports that have airfield lighting but airlines cannot fly late in the night. He remarked that it might not be safe to fly to Port Harcourt by 11 pm in the night because it might not be safe for the passengers.
But he also observed that many of the airports do not have airfield lighting. For example, flights can land late in the night in Owerri but the airport does not have airfield lighting (the state government is installing airfield lighting at Owerri airport).
“Enugu has airfield lighting but the airport is shut by 6:30 pm because of paucity of manpower and the fact the airport largely runs on generator. We require airfield lighting in almost all the airports. In some of the airports if we have good weather and Visual Flight Rule (VFR), we can land by 10:00 pm. But the question that comes is, if there is slightly bad weather, do we have the landing aid? It is worthy to note that by 6:30 pmaircraft have started returning to park. The one from Enugu returns by about that time. It is only Abuja you can deploy aircraft that late. Airlines cannot operate to Port Harcourt after 7:00 pm due to security concerns,” he said.
