57 Years of Air Transport in Nigeria

Chinedu Eze takes a critical look at how the aviation sector has fared in the past 57 years of Nigeria’s independence and how the country can take the advantage of its high population to boost the sector’s contribution to the nation’s GDP

The first aircraft that landed in Nigeria might not have been as a result of strategy to have regular flights to Nigeria but from a sudden decision to scour the plains of a section of the “dark continent” to satisfy curiosity and experiment on technology’s new invention; the aircraft.

That was how 92 years ago, a flight trip led by Flight Lieutenant (later) Air Marshal Air Arthur Coningham landed in Kano on November 1, 1925 from Helwan, a town in Egypt via Sudan and N’Djamena (then known as Fort Lamy). The British Empire administration wanted “the possibilities of opening up the African to civil aviation” and the Empire wanted a long-haul flight “for the purpose of gaining experience in long distance flights over tropical countries,” Cuningham explained in his biography. The crew was welcomed by the Emir of Zazzau.

But 15 years later, Nigeria had started getting regular flights from the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), which later run partnership with the Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) after its establishment in 1958.

NAL held sway until it was liquidated in 2003 but before then, the industry was deregulated which opened the market for private investors to establish commercial airlines. Okada Air, ADC, Triax and many others joined the market.

What was certain and it is still the prevalent situation in Nigeria, is that the country has a blossoming market for air transport and over the years, foreign airlines have been making a kill in Nigeria, as they record high load factor with relatively high fares, airlifting thousands of Nigerians to various international destinations.

Airports
Today the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) manages the 22 airports owned by the federal government and this is in addition to about six airports owned by states. There are also numerous air strips because there is high number of flight operations in Nigeria, from scheduled flights to charter services, oil and gas services and so many others.

From the colonial days, Nigeria had built airports in strategic cities but what is referred to as the most ambitious airport infrastructure progamme took place in 1975-1980 when most of the regional airports were built.
Unfortunately after these airports were built, they were not regularly maintained and even the ones that needed expansion due to increase in flight activities and passenger movement were not expanded and this protracted neglect left the country with decayed airport infrastructure that cannot meet the current demands of airline operation.

Deregulation
It has to be noted that the deregulation of the airline sub-sector helped the growth of the aviation industry because other players joined the market and these created more jobs for aviators, brought in competition and provided alternative choices for travellers. That put to an end the jostling for seats in Nigeria Airways flights, as more airlines provided more seats for passengers.

But then, the flip side of it was that because regulation was lax, many of these airlines brought in very old aircraft and were not efficient in their maintenance and that led to air crashes.

In fact, an industry source said that the privately owned commercial airlines recorded the most tragic accidents in Nigeria. While some of these accidents were attributed to weather; majority was attributed to human error, which ranged from poorly maintained aircraft, to pilot decision and air controllers’ conflicting directives.

Manpower Development
The Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria was established in 1964 and since then, it has been providing the country with training for engineers, pilots, marshallers, communications personnel, cabin crew and others. Although NCAT was neglected for almost 20 years when the school became unable to effectively carry out the training of students but under the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the college was revived and since then it has been providing training for aviators.

However, the school never rose to provide all the training needs for pilots and engineers. For several years, the college was providing Private Pilot License (PPL), while similar schools established at the same time with NCAT had expanded and upgraded their training. For example, the school was established at the same time with one in Ethiopia by the United Nations, but today the training college in Ethiopia has capacity to train 4000 students and it has all the facilities for training of cabin crew, engineers and with simulator training for small and large body aircraft. The school attracts students from the whole of Africa and Middle East.

So the major challenge of NCAT was that it was not providing training for commercial pilot licence until recently and the school in relative terms could be described as a laggard. But many aviators, from pilots, engineers, air traffic controllers, cabin crew and others had their first training experience at the college.

Regulation
Until the 2006 Civil Aviation Act was passed into law, which gave the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) autonomy, civil aviation regulation was poor. The Minister arbitrarily abused safety regulations because when the regulatory authority grounds an aircraft because of unworthiness, the Minister (and other senior government officials) could rescind the decision of grounding the aircraft and would direct the director of air worthiness to allow the aircraft to fly.

Lack of effective regulation gave rise to many accidents that took place in the industry.
According to industry consultant and CEO of Belujane Konsult, the Federal Civil Aviation Authority (FCAA), which was later spilt into the Directorate of Economic Regulation and Directorate of Safety Regulation, there was no effective regulation o the industry.

These were the years of tremendous decadence in the industry, which gave rise to the rot that culminated to the tragic accidents of 2005 and 2006. It was a situation whereby an official could stay in a hotel room and approve an aircraft to fly,” Aligbe said.

That laxity gave rise to one of the most tragic accidents where a flight that was conveying pilgrims to the Holy Land exploded and burnt up while airborne.

Huge Industry
The Nigerian aviation industry is said to hold the key to major economic growth of the country if government could harness the opportunities offered by the sector. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the aviation sector currently contributes NGN 119 billion (0.4 percent) to Nigerian GDP. This total comprises: N 59 billion directly contributed through the output of the aviation sector (airlines, airports and ground services); N 34 billion indirectly contributed through the aviation sector’s supply chain; and N 27 billion contributed through the spending by the employees of the aviation sector and its supply chain.

In addition, there are N78 billion in “catalytic‟ benefits through tourism, which raises the overall contribution to N 198 billion or 0.6 percent of GDP.

As major employer, the aviation sector supports 159,000 jobs in Nigeria. This total comprises: 44,000 jobs directly supported by the aviation sector; 64,000 jobs indirectly supported through the aviation sector’s supply chain; and 51,000 jobs supported through the spending by the employees of the aviation sector and its supply chain.
In addition, there are about 130,000 people employed through the catalytic (tourism) effects of aviation.

“The average air transport services employee generates N 3.5 million in Gross Value Added (GVA) annually, which is nearly seven times more productive than the average in Nigeria. The aviation sector pays over N8.5 billion in tax including income tax receipts from employees, social security contributions and corporation tax levied on profits, with a further N17.0 billion of revenue coming from VAT on domestic and international flights originating in Nigeria. It is estimated that an additional NGN 8.9 billion of government revenue is raised via the aviation sector’s supply chain and another N7.1 billion through taxation of the activities supported by the spending of employees of both the aviation sector and its supply chain,” IATA said.

IATA also said that from visiting family and friends to shipping high value products, 8.3 million passengers and 181,000 tonnes of freight travelled to, from and within Nigeria. More than 15,200 scheduled international flights depart Nigeria annually, destined for 32 airports in 30 countries. Domestically, more than 66,800 flights make over 7.5 million seats available to passengers, destined to 18 airports.

“Air passengers resident in Nigeria comprise approximately 4.2 million of the passenger total. For the 8.3 million passenger flights in total, passengers pay N866 billion (inclusive of tax), with Nigerian residents paying around N 438 billion. Calculations by Oxford Economics suggest the value of the benefit to travellers from flying, in excess of their expenditure, is worth N785 billion a year N397 billion for Nigerian residents”, IATA said.

Challenges
Many industry experts believe that government is responsible for the retrogression of the aviation industry and accused government of issuing self-serving policies that are not meant to move the sector forward.

Aligbe told THISDAY that the snag in the development of the aviation industry is lack of political leadership over the years in both military and civilian governments.

“The Ministers who have been appointed in the industry should give account of their stewardship. Some of them destroyed the regulatory authority, while others destroyed the airline sub-sector. When they want to do their evil they start shouting corruption.

“Government pays lip service to the aviation industry, but I do not know what this government will do. I don’t know whether they will implement what they promised. They have shown a lot of commitment in Private, Public Partnership (PPP), which will open up the sector. They have mentioned good policies, but will they live up to that promise?” Aligbe asked.

What is very sad is that since the deregulation of the commercial airline sub-sector is that airlines exist average of 10 years and they go under. This is caused by myriads of problems, including scarcity and high cost of aviation fuel, shortage of forex for airline operators, poor facilities at the nation’s airports, multiple taxations and absence of Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility, which forced airlines to expend huge funds in overseas maintenance of their aircraft.

It is believed that government can solve all these problems if there is political will and commitment to the aviation industry.