Nigeria’s aviation sector stinks, can Keyamo clean up?

 

Transportation is very key to human existence. In the days of yore, aside from trekking, many people travel by riding on animals such as horses, donkeys, and camels. When technology came, vehicles, trains, canoes, boats, ships and airplanes gradually substituted animals in the transportation business.  It is debatable if people travel more for business or pleasure. Undoubtedly, the fastest means of transportation is through air. An airplane can make road travel of 12 hours in one hour. Hence, it is the most preferred means of travel by elites who value time and also want to travel safely.

The history of aviation in Nigeria would be incomplete without the mention of Kano city, where the first aircraft landed on November 1, 1925. According to Wikipedia, Nigeria Airways was founded in 1958 after the dissolution of West African Airways Corporation. It held the name West African Airways Corporation Nigeria until 1971 when it was rebranded to the name it had until it ceased operations in 2003. After many years of operating as Nigeria’s national carrier, Nigeria’s aviation was privatised to allow Nigerian and foreign business owners to run airlines in the country.

Information gleaned from the website of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority shows that in its about 65 years of existence, Nigeria has 20 airports and many regulated airstrips and heliports; 23 active domestic airlines; 554 licensed pilots; 913 licensed engineers and 1700 cabin personnel. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is an important destination for over 22 foreign carriers. Nigeria currently has Bilateral Air Services Agreements with over 78 countries.

I have been a regular air traveller for over 20 years now. I can safely say that air travel in Nigeria remains a traumatic experience. Flight cancellations and long delays are the two most pronounced challenges faced by air passengers. Other unpleasant experiences of air travellers include arbitrary airfares, misplacement and mishandling of passengers’ luggage, unfavourable airport waiting lounges, discourteous airline staff, failure to implement the passengers’ bill of rights, corrupt practices, among others.

I have had three distasteful experiences in the recent past. The first happened on December 15, 2020. I had been invited as one of the resource persons to the 3rd Annual Abiola Ajimobi Roundtable organised by the Senator Abiola Ajimobi Foundation in collaboration with the Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan.  Prof. Freedom Onuoha of the Department of Political Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and I were scheduled to fly Overland Airways from Abuja to Ibadan. We bought our tickets and got to the airport early enough. However, after about five hours’ delay, the flight was cancelled. We were asked to return the following morning which was the day of the event we were going for in Ibadan. It was to start at 10 am. The airline asked us to return at 7:30 in the morning of December 16. There was no refreshment served during the duration of the long delay. We returned the following morning.  Even then, the flight did not depart until about 11:30 am. The programme we went for had commenced and the organisers were worried about our safety and security. We ended up getting there very late, at about 2 pm due to an additional hold-up experienced from the Ibadan airport to the University of Ibadan Conference Centre, the venue of the programme.

Among us was a doctoral student who I learnt was going for her PhD defence at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, and had hoped to be on the ground a day before the epochal event. She cried her eyes out. Other fellow passengers included judges and senior lawyers. The disappointment made us form a WhatsApp group with the hope of suing the airline. Unfortunately, many of those affected were non-committal to the proposed court case, so it died a natural death.

My second nasty experience was on January 11, 2023. I had gone to Kaduna on official assignment and was scheduled for another event on January 12 and 13 in Jos. Due to the fear of abduction, the organisation that engaged me preferred me to fly to Lagos and connect a flight to Jos from there but a five-hour delay at the Kaduna airport meant my connecting flight to Jos from Lagos had departed before my late arrival to Lagos. An early morning flight scheduled for 8 am on January 12 was cancelled at about 5 am on the departure day. My colleague and I had to reschedule our flights to Abuja and did about five hours of road travel to Jos from there.

The third bad experience took place last Friday, December 1. I had gone to Lagos from Abuja via United Nigeria Airlines on Tuesday, November 28 for a two-day official assignment. My colleagues and I were to return via the same airline last Friday. As we were preparing to leave the hotel for the airport, information came that our 2 pm flight had been rescheduled to 5:20 pm. The organisation then arranged a delayed checkout for us till 2 pm. On getting to the airport at about 3 pm we waited till about 7:30 pm without the flight being called. Then announcement was made for all checked-in passengers to come to Gate 5. We thought we were going to board. No way! Rather the airline official briefed us that we were going to be merged with Port Harcourt passengers whose flight was scheduled for 9:10 pm. Thereafter we would be flown from Port Harcourt to Abuja. I was flabbergasted!

This is the same airline that took passengers from Lagos on Sunday, November 26, 2023, and rather than take them to Abuja, it curiously took them to Asaba only to later take them to Abuja when the pilot noticed that he was handed the wrong flight plan. But reacting, a statement signed by its head, Corporate Communications, Achilleus-Chud Uchegbu, said the United Nigeria Airlines flight, NUA 0504, operating from Lagos en-route Abuja on Sunday, November 26 was “temporarily diverted to the Asaba International Airport due to poor destination weather.” This claim has been debunked by NCAA officials. News report said the NCAA inspectors were not convinced about the claim of the airline that its crew diverted to Asaba following the bad weather situation at the Abuja Airport. It was learnt that all the wet-leased aircraft in its fleet would remain suspended until after the conclusion of the investigation into the incident.

With the palpable fear of a possible re-enactment of the November 26 experience, the organisers of the programme I went for in Lagos took a prompt decision to buy tickets from another airline flying directly to Abuja from Lagos. Though we were lucky to get tickets on Dana’s 8:20 pm flight to Abuja, it did not take off until after 10 pm. Finally, I got home at about 1 am. What an Israelite journey! What was going on in my mind was if any of us should have a medical emergency, or someone who is weak to make a road travel that was booked for a flight only to have an extended delay like we experienced last Friday, what would happen to such a fellow? Granted that flight cancellations and delays are not peculiar to Nigeria, it is fast becoming unbecoming of Nigerian airlines to use the subterfuge of operational reasons to cause untold hardship to the flying public.

This is despite having to cough out exorbitant fees to purchase air tickets. Refunds take a long time to be made by these Shylock airlines. Another unwholesome practice is to put the luggage of passengers into another airline without informing them. This happened to colleagues with whom I travelled on the United Nigeria Airline last week Tuesday, November 28, 2023.

I want the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo (SAN), to ensure that regulatory agencies in the aviation sector are alive to their responsibilities. Sharp practices and malpractices of the domestic airlines are impacting negatively on the ease of doing business. The Passengers’ bill of rights should be made known to them and be enforced. All the necessary C-Checks i.e. routine maintenance, should be enforced on all the airlines. The trapped funds of the foreign and domestic airlines with the Central Bank of Nigeria should be released and if necessary, bailout funds should be made available to these airlines to ensure their operational efficiency and safety. A stitch in time saves nine!