Abdullahi: Low-cost Airlines will Boost Domestic Travel
Director of Consumer Protection, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Adamu Abdullahi said fares must be affordable for more Nigerians to travel by air. He also proffered solutions to the menace of the Harmattan season on flight operations. Chinedu Eze
Could you please explain why air fares on international flights in Nigeria are relatively higher than other countries in West and Central Africa, including Ghana?
We took this up at a stage to the extent that the NCAA sponsored people to go to Ghana, buy tickets, find out the cost and come back and compare with what is obtainable here. Now ticket prices are deregulated, it is demand that determines cost. In the immediate past administration in 2015, there were times when our first class and business class tickets on British Airways cost about double what it cost in Accra, which is the same distance to London. But the ticket cost at least for those classes of tickets (business and first class), the aircraft from Ghana will leave both classes of seats empty while here we have over booking on those same seats and most of them paid for by government.
So it is still a question of demand and supply. The airline explained to us that ticket fares are on the high side because the demand for them is very high and we went through their records and found out that it was what actually determines their prices. So, like I said earlier, ticket prices have been deregulated; we don’t tell them how much to sell their tickets.
You will notice that the cost of tickets by Nigerian airlines that operate international destinations are usually less which means that if more Nigerian airlines operate international services Nigerians will pay less?
Airline business is a very funny business; you see preferences of passengers are really something that sometimes if you look at it, it doesn’t make sense. A passenger will be willing to pay, maybe, double what he would have paid on Medview to go on BA. It is a class thing. They will announce, oh I travelled on BA instead of Medview, that is exactly what is happening. But all the same, I am positive that if we are able to take these things out seriously on Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) that we have signed with these countries and we insist on reciprocity clause so that our own airlines fly to their own countries; just the same way that they fly to our country, it will be a much better deal for us. This will now make international airlines even go into code-share agreement and interlining arrangements with the domestic airlines. And that will grow our own domestic airlines and make them quality wise better than they are today.
Compared to last year, would you say there is improvement in passenger movement; that more Nigerians are traveling in 2017?
In both cases I would say yes, as the International Air Transport Association (IATA) itself pointed out in its outlook for the year2017, first, second quarters, we have seen certain jump in passenger traffic in Nigeria. You know we faced recession in 2016, which started easing this year; so there is the general believe that we are out of recession.
So we have seen improved traffic because even the airlines that have reverted to the use of smaller aircraft are now reverting back to their original aircraft sizes. And we have seen Emirates getting ready now to operate out of Abuja and their two flights, frequencies into Lagos daily, is also about to commence, which means that there is going to be serious improvement in number of people travelling. But more importantly, when it comes to passenger handling we don’t normally have any issues with international airlines. It has been like that over the years.
The area that we are having small hiccups are areas of baggage handling and the ones that really touched our hearts are the ones that involved passengers with induced mobility who had their wheelchairs damaged by the airlines especially Turkish Airlines, we have had issues with that; even though one of the issues have just been resolved. The passenger and the airline have agreed. The airline has agreed to pay N1.3 million as damages to the passenger to go and repair the wheelchair, because it is not beyond repair; if it were, we would have insisted on full compensation for the cost of the wheelchair. But the passenger agreed that the chair is repairable, so N1.3 million has been agreed. And within this week that would have been sorted out. We still have two other issues we are looking at. I believe that what actually happened is due is security reasons. You see when wheelchairs are carried in the belly of the aircraft by the time they arrive, security agents become worried at the number of wheelchairs passengers are coming along with and in scrutinisng the wheelchair they reduce them to pieces to make sure there are no drugs hidden in them. In the long run nothing was found in this case and the airline, of course, being the one that received and tagged the wheelchairs are those who are liable for any damages that have been done to the wheelchairs. So we are getting to the root of it and we are making progress.
I would say by and large these are the major issues that we have contended with this year; otherwise, the airlines have been behaving well even the ones that they didn’t when we call their attention to them they would behave well. In the case of the 22 students of Glisten International College, Abuja, for instance, in which some students were left unattended in Turkey, that has been resolved and the airline offered each and every aggrieved child return trip to any destination that the airline goes to and so far four members of the family but one have collected that compensation. So these are the only major issues otherwise the airlines have really been behaving well.
Over time our airports have not been able to put facilities on ground for easy movement of people with reduced mobility. Who should be blamed for this: the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the airport managers or NCAA, the regulator?
We have oversight over FAAN, so whatever observations we make the onus is on us to draw the attention of the management of FAAN to its short comings in the airport. This is something that we have noted and we have raised it in one or two of our meetings. It is going to be a very difficult thing but it is doable. This is because once you ensure that the lifts and escalators work; that means wheelchair passengers can have access to these lifts and escalators.
But then there are places where you need slopes as opposed to staircases so that wheelchair passengers can be wheeled in those spaces. Lagos and Abuja have platforms. Platforms are the equipment used to raise wheelchair passengers to the door of the aircraft so that they can be pushed into the aircraft. The airlines who now handle these passengers with this mobility have to pay for that service, so rather than expect that FAAN would give them the service free of charge, FAAN concession that service to the concessionaire. So they are to collect the cost for the platform.
What are the things you think will be needed to make more Nigerians travel by air?
First and foremost, cost. People still believe that the cost of air travel is on the high side. What would have reduced it is the introduction of low cost carriers; that is what has happened in Europe and in the Americas that people now use the opportunity to fly. Even at that; when Air Peace came to the market and started flying to Akure recently and introduced N10, 000 tickets, people felt they cannot afford it and have continued to go by road.
By the time our railways are fully developed it will be even much more competitive with air transport. Now that the roads are even bad with all kinds of challenges, people still prefer to go by road because it is much cheaper than air. But what will determine lower cost of tickets is when we have these low cost carriers and then also the right sizing of our aircraft. This is because it is fool headed for one to use Boeing B73 to operate short distance, like Akure-Lagos. For instance, if you are going to Akure then you take 164- seater aircraft; of course you know that you are not going to fill that aircraft.
Secondly, the cost of fuelling for that aircraft, you can’t even get the cost back. And you are not playing a political game, this is not Father Christmas, it is business and you go into to business to make money. That is why state government goes into agreements with airlines to come to their airports and they offset some of these costs so that the airlines will come. The same thing happened in Gombe, Dutse, but as you can see, as money became less and less available, all the agreements have now been falling by the wayside. No flights go to Bauchi now; Gombe is essentially commercial and sometimes you pay up to N25, 000 or N30, 000 to get to Gombe. I would say the introduction of low cost carriers is going to be the way out and the right sizing of aircraft.
Would you say the industry is looking up generally both domestic and international operations?
I would say yes because the way our economy is improving, the latest news is that 70 percent of pilgrims that went on hajj from Kebbi and Sokoto state are farmers. For the last two years if you are a farmer, the economy has improved, especially the rice farming that brought about the arrangement between Kebbi and Lagos and they were selling the Lake Rice. It was a very