Abuja Airport Closure: Nigerian Airlines Lose N10bn in Three Weeks

Nigerian airline operators have put at about N10 billion, the lost they have incurred in the first three weeks the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja was closed for the rehabilitation of its runway.

These losses, according to the airlines, were a result of low passenger traffic, more fuel consumption and increased remuneration due to crew’s extra flight time.

Some of the operators, passengers and airport officials, who spoke to THISDAY on Wednesday, said passenger traffic has significantly reduced because many people, who would not want to go through Kaduna, have suspended their trips to Abuja pending when the airport will be reopened.

Passengers, who have been travelling through the alternative airport, complained of it is cumbersome and long bus ride from the Kaduna airport to Abuja, which takes at least three hours.

An operator of a major airline told THISDAY that due to the losses that would be incurred, his airline decided to cut down its operations and use part of the six weeks period the Abuja airport would remain closed to send the crew for simulator training.

“Airlines are incurring huge losses now. The N10 billion projected loss in the first three weeks is more like it because the suspension of flights to Abuja cut down the traffic by 40 percent and even the remaining 60 percent is underperforming. Those airlines that were generating

about N100 million daily cannot even generate N50 million now and you still have to pay for insurance, consume the same amount of fuel, if not more, carry out the maintenance of the aircraft and pay the crew.

“It is wrong to put pressure on airlines to operate from Kaduna because it is purely a commercial decision by the airlines. As a newspaper company, if your newspaper does not sell in Maidiguri, will you carry two truckloads of your newspapers to that city and what do you expect when you take your goods there? Airlines should have been allowed to take their decision. Some airlines like Ethiopia Airlines decided to play politics. That is a government airline; not every airline has the kind of privilege that they have,” one operator told THISDAY.