AM EDITORIAL: Let Us Have More Professional Industry Engagements
Between 2006 and 2011, Nigeria’s aviation industry witnessed several fora and public engagements between aviation agencies and private service providers. Those times called for this, as a response to the 2005 situation where locally operated airplanes were falling from Nigeria’s skies repeatedly. Within three months, there were Bellview (October 22) and Sosoliso (December 10) fatal crashes with loss of hundreds of lives.
Not many took note of the fact that apart from the 2006 civil aviation policy review and other pragmatic measures, frequent stakeholder engagements contributed to improvement of Nigeria’s aviation safety records thereafter.
Today, there is a build-up of industry issues, which more frequent industry engagements, similar to the ones held two decades ago, would help to address to avoid another “MayDay” situation.
Avoidable passenger service lapses are increasing, resulting in recurring unruly passenger cases. Most industry players know that most cases of emergence of unruly passenger in this clime are produced by a chain of systems failures.
Flight cancellation and or delay is understandable when for instance, weather situation is the cause. That is a natural phenomenon. However, where delay is caused by the inadequacy or non-availability of airworthy aircraft in the fleet of the aircraft operator that has sold tickets to passengers, it is an avoidable man-made problem. Where it is caused by a loaded aircraft, having to wait for a long time on the apron with passengers onboard, because some airport or handling facility is either inadequate or unavailable, it is an avoidable man-made problem.
Where passengers go rowdy and unruly because after a long wait, the airline fails to communicate, to inform them about what is happening, it is an avoidable man-made problem.
Where an aircraft is cleared to land in a destination airport, that as at the time of scheduled landing, would not be operational as a sunset airport, who bears the liability for the implications of that human error of a disappointment? Where an aircraft has to burn more fuel than it would have done, because it has to taxi from international terminal to the local terminal of an airport, after landing on a local flight, who bears the cost? The state of an available second terminal, which had to lead to such scenario is equally a subject of concern here.
Professionals need to come together to share ideas on how local airlines in Nigeria can do better in a harsh operating environment where policy pressure is needed urgently to obtain favourable insurance conditions, aviation fuel pricing and availability, forex access and other concessions to empower local airlines. Laws on local aircraft insurance need to be reviewed.
A country that owns a comprehensive Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility as matter of business investment, can enjoy huge revenue generation, even with just one or two strong local airlines. Ethiopia is a very good example.
The ability of a country to generate huge revenues from flying school is not dependent on the number of flying schools but on the capacity of the one available.
There is obviously a need for more deliberate stakeholder engagements to fix Nigeria’s aviation sector. The Ministry of Aviation & Aerospace Development should be commended for the forum on Cape Town Convention Practice Directions held in Abuja, after Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI) earlier flagged off the stakeholder discussions in Lagos. The meeting of aviation agencies with airline operators in Abuja over flight cancellations and delays as well as the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) initiative of a flight data portal is equally a plus.
There is hardly an aviation related issue that exempts airlines from discussion. Local airlines and agencies in Nigeria are therefore encouraged to attend and support more, the quarterly Business Breakfast Meeting organized as industry development service by ASRTI. The non-responsive attitude of some airlines and agencies to invitations to such engagements has left industry, discussing certain critical issues from year to year without having such issues addressed by the stakeholders tasked with such responsibility, while avoidable industry snags continue to fester.
Nigeria’s aviation industry leadership needs to engage more with both internal and external stakeholders so as to produce evidential improvements in industry safety standards and economics, apart from media successes.AM
