Why Domestic Airlines Are Not Profiting from Huge Nigerian Market

                                                                      Aviation analyst Chris Aligbe

Nigeria has the largest air traffic market in West Africa, which is put at about eight million per annum, but the country’s airlines do not profit from this huge passenger movement, aviation industry experts have said.

According to the experts the three factors that have been adduced to this  are that Nigerian airlines score very low in on-time performance; which means incessant flights delays and cancellations.

In the domestic market the airlines could get away with such inefficiency because passengers do not have other choices but in the international market, Nigerian passengers would always prefer reliable international airlines.

This, experts said, explains why Nigerian airlines record low load factor despite the huge travelling public that travel out and return to the country every day.

Besides, Nigerian airlines cannot code-share with their international counterparts because of their poor on-time performance. This, experts added, contributed to why they will not reap the benefit of such partnership, which include more revenue, technology transfer and technical training.

For example, the defunct Virgin Nigeria had the best on-time performance, up to 80 per cent and it had partnership with Delta Air Lines and Ethiopian Airlines and was distributing passengers for these airlines in the West coast while bringing US bound passenger for Delta Air Lines from West African countries.

With such low on-time performance, the Nigerian airlines pick the crumbs on international travel; while  other efficient airlines would pick the premium passengers even in sub-regional destinations and this explain why Asky Airline, which operates in West and Central Africa is succeeding where Nigerian airlines are failing.

Travel expert, Ikechi Uko said about $2 billion dollars revenue accrue from international travel from Nigeria every year but Nigerian airlines do not benefit from this huge revenue.

Another factor that hinders domestic airlines from benefiting from huge Nigerian market, according to experts  is low capacity. According to them, besides Arik Air,  which has 28 aircraft, the other seven airlines in Nigeria do not have a total of 20 aircraft and this tends to limit their capacity.

Also,  Nigerian airlines, experts observed, are not fully utilising their potential market in West African sub region as they are meant to connect every capital city in the sub-region to Abuja, according to the agreement reached by the ECOWAS states.

The airlines on their side accuse government of excessive taxes, harsh operational environment, poor infrastructure and inadequate supply of aviation fuel which comes in relatively high prices.

Industry analyst, Chris Aligbe noted recently that Nigerian airlines have refused to grow despite the huge opportunities of a willing travelling public.

“These days flight delays are things you must expect if you are an air traveller. You prepare yourself for these delays; sometimes you are coming back to your destination by 12 midnight when you should have arrived at 7:00 pm. Operationally we are nowhere in the industry and there is nothing put in place for the airlines’ growth. There is nothing put in place for them to correct this position. All that every one of them wakes up to tell you is that if government can put good policy in place. What is the policy that you are asking government to put in place? They don’t have the foggiest idea,” Aligbe said.

Aligbe said since the industry was deregulated, airlines owned by private investors have not made any way forward.