Why Nigeria’s Airport Needs Transit Facilities, By Airline Operator
The Chairman of Air Peace Limited, Dr. Allen Onyema has highlighted the importance of having transit hub facilities at Lagos airport and some other airports in Nigeria.
Speaking at the 29th Annual Conference of League of Airport & Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) held in Lagos with the theme, “Aviation Financing in Nigeria: The Risks, Opportunities and Prospects”, Onyema said: “We took passengers from Douala. We fly Douala. We fly Monrovia. We fly Freetown. We do Banjul. We do Dakar. We do Accra. We do Abidjan. We took passengers from Douala. They were going to Dakar. Douala is in Central Africa. It is not West Africa. That is Cameroon. We took passengers. When we got to Lagos, they were told to pay visa fees. You know they are not ECOWAS member. So, you pay about $400 visa fees before you enter Nigeria. Meanwhile, they were not going to Nigeria.
They only transit through a Nigerian airport but because Nigerian airport has no transit facilities, they had to pay for visa. You pass through immigration. You pass through COVID people. You pass through quarantine. You pass through customs. You pass through all of them.
Then, you come out from your arrival. Then, you go upstairs again. You come and start checking in. Tell me if that person will fly your airline again to anywhere in the world. Let us call a spade a spade.
The Lagos airport has no transit facility. That is what FAAN is trying to do. This present regime is doing a lot. I am not a politician, but I must praise it. When it comes to aviation, they are doing a lot. Even Olubunmi Kuku, if you call her now, she answers. They want to help the airlines and they are really helping the airlines. Things have changed and I believe that in the next 22 months, this country will have a good airport that we will be proud of.
We are doing London and Air Peace is flying to about nine countries in West Africa. I could not take them, bring them to Nigeria and take them out. Togo has no domestic operations. They only have one airport but what Togo does is convergence of passengers from everywhere. Then, they export them from there to other countries.”
Onyema said “if we give Nigerian airlines the right infrastructure, believe me, Ethiopian and the rest will be a thing of the past in the next 10 years,” adding that “like when I talked about hub, it will help the Nigerian airline. Ibom Air is going to Accra today. Some others will join. If you have a hub infrastructure in our airports, it will increase our revenue. It is given. Our profitability will increase. You don’t need to depend on only where you are given handouts or whatever from government. Allow us.”
“Air Peace flies to nine countries in Africa. You are told that the airlines make hubs. No. You need the airport infrastructure to be able to have a hub. If you like, have 200 aircraft. You cannot have a hub except the airport infrastructure supports it. Even the Minister has come up. We took it to him and he realized that this is a part of it. He took it to the president and our President is a businessman, progressively minded. He approved it. That is why we are having the airport in Lagos, having to go down to bring up something that you can have a hub,” he said.
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