‘Nigerian airlines carry 8% of weekly passenger seats’

The President of Aviation Roundtable, Elder Gabriel Olowo, has said Nigerian airlines have been at the losing end with regard to passenger seats in the last 40 years despite the significant increase in passenger traffic.

Olowo expressed fear that the situation might become worse citing the recent challenges faced by Arik Air.

Speaking when the forum hosted ministers of Information and State for Aviation, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Senator Hadi Sirika, Olowo noted that there were 12,000 weekly seats as at 2000; 30,000 in 2012 and 48,000 in 2015.

The seats comprise of local and international passengers per week with foreign carriers dominating the space because of the capacity of local carriers.

He lamented that Nigerian carriers were responsible for only eight per cent of the total seats.

He expressed worry that the weekly available seats for Nigeria might decline, citing the case of Arik Air and other local flights, which were closing their regional routes.

He said: “Our airlines are not growing while the foreign airlines keep growing in our airspace. The three giant African carriers - Ethiopian, Kenyan and South African Airways, their revenues are not up to one-third revenue of Emirates.

“We need a masterplan that will give us a sustained engagement from the minister. There are fears that the seats available to Nigerian carriers may reduce because of the challenges we are facing in the industry most especially among our carriers”.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed said the federal government had done everything possible to ensure the comfort of the travelling public during the six weeks closure of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and diversion of traffic from Abuja.

It provided an opportunity for members of the ART, an industry think-tank group, to interact with the government representatives especially on the closure of the airport and other challenges facing the sector.