Due to the inability of airlines to carry out flight operations at night into majority of the airports in Nigeria, a whooping sum of N4.3 billion is lost in revenue annually, industry aviation industry experts revealed at the weekend at a forum in Lagos.
The challenges of imposing restrictions to a 24 hours flight operations in certain airports are multifaceted according to the country’s airports management authorities.
However, experts tasked the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to change the tide in the growth trajectory for the nation’s airlines without relegating safety, rather than slamming them with suspension.
Experts who spoke at the 26th annual conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) in Lagos with the theme: Sunset Airports: Economic and Safety Implications,’ urged a new trend.
Mr. George Uriesi, the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Ibom Air said that the lack of 24 hours flight operations to major routes in Nigeria was impeding the growth of the airlines.
In his paper, ‘Maximising Runway Utilisation: A Nigerian Airline Perspective,’ Uriesi said the country’s carriers are losing an average of N4 million per flight, N12 million in every flight, N360 million in 90 flights and N4.3 billion annually on every flight lost to sunset airport operations.
Besides, Prof. Anthony Kila, the Centre Director at the Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies (CIAPS), in his paper: ‘Passenger Experience In Daylight Airports,’ said that NCAA should encourage the airlines to succeed without the relegation of safety.
Earlier, Group Managing Director, Finchglow Holdings, Mr. Bankole Bernard, in his speech, warned that the continuous rise of dollar against naira would spell doom for the industry.
