Airport Concession

the revenue of domestic airlines to the tune of about N40 billion annually. This is the estimated amount of revenue that the airlines lose because they do not operate after 6:00 to more than 18 airports in the country because these airports do not have the critical landing known as airfield lights or runway lighting.

Managing Director of Arik Air, Chris Ndulue recently told THISDAY in an interview that Nigerian airlines lose huge resources because they do not operate to many airports in the night.

“But you have to look at it in terms of potential additional revenue for operating for longer periods, perhaps into the night. Again you can also look at it in terms of underutilisation of the aircraft because they are not used for longer periods during the day. So at the end of the day you may estimate that to be in the region of 40 billion naira in a year. But this depends on how many of such airports that you think you can access,” Ndulue said.

The advantage of having such critical equipment is that it would help not only the airlines but passengers. Presently when technical or other problem occur in the daily operation of airlines that leads to delays, some flights that delay beyond 6:00 PM may be cancelled if the destined airports do not have airfield lighting.

So the installation of the equipment will enable airlines to fly to Ibadan, Akure, Enugu, Owerri, Calabar, Yola and other airports where currently there is no airfield lighting.

It will also help safety of airline operations because during emergency in the night a troubled aircraft can land at the nearest airport, instead of looking for the one that has airfield lighting, which may be hundreds of kilometres away.

The Jonathan administration has a policy that government can still build and manage the airports, but the experiment failed. It embarked on airport rehabilitation but immediately the Minister of Aviation who undertook the project and succeeded in rebuilding many of the terminals was removed, the administration could not go on to complete the rehabilitation projects. So, the message the failure conveyed is that government may not effectively fund airport facility development; that that aspect of airport development should be given to the private sector.

Former Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), George Uriesi, said concession is the best way to build and maintain airport facilities in order to have a win-win situation whereby passengers would enjoy modern facilities and the burden of maintaining the facilities will be off the neck of government.

“I have always said that concession is the right thing to do. That is why South African airports are the way they are. They are partly privatised and government lets them operate independently. Government is a shareholder but it does not intervene. It is inactive shareholder. That is one thing that South Africa did that is very good. It is the same thing Kenya did with Kenya Airways; it lets Kenya Airways operate without any form of interference. The problem with Nigeria is, if it is possible to do it properly, I will always stand for it. The problem is that once government wants to do it some “master of the universe” will go and play games with it and take it away and at the end of the day it will not be the right thing to be done.

“If they can sit down and say, let us do what other countries did; open door to bidders, let the best company win and let it go on international principles, I am all for it. But they will say they are privatising and the next thing you will hear is that one guy that has connections will corner it and when you read the concession agreement you will see it is skewed in favour of that person at the detriment of government,” Uriesi said.

With the wind of change taking place at this time and with seeming new philosophy of doing things, it is believed that things will be different.

For many years there has been agitation by concerned Nigerians for the privatisation of airport terminals and other infrastructure. These Nigerians posit that government may not have the funds to continue the maintenance of these airport facilities, expand them when necessary and modernise them to be in tandem with the latest technological development.

Those who oppose this demand insist that airports are part of the socio-economic institutions which government provides for the citizenry; therefore government should continue to build, manage and sustain airport facilities. They also argue that to make air fares affordable to the majority of Nigerians, government must build and manage the airports and charge non-profit fees for their services.

But over the years, it has become obvious that the Nigerian government cannot shoulder this responsibility as it has allowed these airports to decay until 2011 when the Jonathan administration started a massive airport remodelling project, which did not fully materialise. Autonomy of NCAA

Airworthiness of aircraft is determined by the regulatory body, NCAA and the airlines. To ensure that airlines maintain their aircraft, NCAA monitors and certifies them. The 2006 Civil Aviation Act gave the NCAA autonomy, but over the years this autonomy has been eroded by government interferences. For NCAA to effectively carry out its responsibilities, the new administration should ensure that the Authority is granted full autonomy.

NCAA also must engage fully qualified personnel and also train younger officers that will take over from the older ones who would inevitably retire. But reports coming from NCAA have exposed so much abuse and arbitrariness, whereby the airworthiness directorate allegedly insulate critical decisions from the management and extend maintenance dates for airlines without the approval of the Director-General. This will have devastating effects on the industry if unchecked.

Government must have to restore the autonomy of NCAA and also stop the Ministry of Aviation from taking funds from the agencies. The duties of the Minister must be detailed in such a way that while the Minister carries out the policy of the government in the sector, it does not infringe on the policy of the regulatory body which duty is to ensure that airlines carry out safe operations.

It is expected that NCAA should be stricter and should maintain its old policy of not granting extensions to airlines whose aircraft are due for maintenance. The NCAA, also must device definite programme for training of young personnel as future aircraft inspectors.