Kenneth Ehigiator
23 June 2008
Lagos — The question has often been asked: Are there changes in the Aviation industry since the fatal accidents of 2005 and 2006? The answer, from the point of view of close watchers of the industry, is yes and no.
In other words, it has been a mixed grill, which points to the fact that a lot of work needs to be done to put the sector at par with others across the aviation world. In spite of the shortcomings still prevalent in the industry, the industry has recorded a quantum leap in regulation.
In this respect, the industry has witnessed a new Civil Aviation Act 2006, which has made it possible for the regulator, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), to create the leeway for Nigerian airlines to access international finances for aircraft acquisition, by virtue of the ratification and domestication of the Cape Town Convention. To this extent, airlines such as Arik, Virgin Nigeria and Bellview have taken advantage of the window to acquire or seek to acquire new aircraft. So far, Arik has placed an order for various aircraft range to the tune of about $2 billion. Similarly, Virgin Nigeria also has an order for 23 new planes worth millions of dollars, while Bellview is also in the process of re-fleeting to the tune of 58 aircraft amounting to some hundreds of millions of dollars. The Director-General of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) recently put total aircraft order by Nigerian airlines at $4.6 billion, attributing the development to Nigeria's implementation of the Cape Town Convention, ratified by the Federal Government by virtue of the 2006 Civil Aviation Act.
Air safety in Nigeria had always been tied to the type of aircraft being used by airline operators, which prompted the Federal Government to place a ban on aircraft more than 22 years of age in 2001, although some of the aircraft still in circulation are thirty years and above. Nigerian air travellers believe that air safety can be better guaranteed by newer planes. That is, however, neither here nor there, especially as the Kenya Airways' plane that crashed in Yaounde, Cameroun, in August last year, was just six months out of the production line.
Besides, it has never been business as usual for airline operators, as the NCAA had, in the last three years, put operators on their toes as far as operating in line with standard operating practices is concerned. In other words, cutting of corners by operators has become a thing of the past. That is how far progress made in the aftermath of the fatal accidents in the last three years has gone.
Suffice it to say that the Aviation industry is still beset with challenges that have made it impossible for it to actualise its potentials. Questions are still being raised about the integrity of infrastructure in the industry. This has, however, not stopped the steady marginal increase in the number of passengers who pass through the nation's 22 airports.
Infrastructure:
Developments at airports across the country are those of inadequate infrastructure for safe airline operations. It's either there are problems with runways or with navigational facilities installed at the airports, especially the international airports with high traffic volume. At the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos, for instance, traffic is restricted to just one runway, Runway 18R , because of the endless rehabilitation of the alternate runway 18L which had been on since the last three years. The delay in installation of runway lightings on the runway has prevented it from being put into use, with added pressures being put on the alternate runway.
Fears are being expressed that unless the runway was quickly put into use, the only functional runway might soon begin to crack and throw the airport back to the days aircraft were skidding off runway due to flooding. The consequence of non-completion of the runway which re-surfacing started about three years ago, is the fact that planes now have to stay on the queue for upwards of about 45 minutes to get clearance for take-off. This brings additional cost to airlines by way of fuel, which price has hit the roof in recent times.
Port Harcourt International Airport has also not been put into full operation because of failure of the contractor to complete installation of the airfield and runway lighting. Coming against the backdrop of the inability of the Federal Airports Authority to renew infrastructure at airports, even with support from some state governments, FAAN's financial dire straits will, for some time, militate against the upgrade of airports in Nigeria to international standards.
Even the NCAA is aware of the acute problem of infrastructure at airports in the country, that it insisted on having them certified. According to the regulatory agency, airports that fail the audit would be shut. Government's release of N19.5 billion intervention funds, as an aftermath of the Air Marshal Paul Dike-led Presidential Panel on Aviation, has become a sour point in efforts to renew infrastructure at airports across the country.
Questions have been asked about how the funds were administered by succeeding administrations in the Aviation sector, but satisfactory explanations have yet to be advanced. For instance, the total radar coverage of the nation's airspace (TRACON) by NAMA is yet to be completed by the agency, in spite of this intervention. The project, which as at 2003, required not more than 63 million euros to complete, has even been overtaken by technology, although NAMA has secured the understanding of the providers, Thales of France, to update the technology as changes and variation in technology occur. Consequently, the nation has not been able to fully maximise the benefits of TRACON, which would have made possible easy detection of what happened to the Beechcraft 1900D declared missing on its way to Obudu Ranch, Cross River State, on March 15, 2008.
TRACON was set out to ensure effective monitoring of Nigeria's airspace, to the extent that any unfriendly object that strays into it was detected without any difficulty. The integrity of radio communication between pilots and air traffic controllers had also become a problem in recent times, especially at a point in the Northern air traffic region, popularly known as "Black Spot." This is the point in the airspace where pilots are known to fly blind, as they can hardly get across to ground communication with control tower. Consequently, some pilots have been known to have devised a means to reach ground control by GSM phones; how frequent this is, is yet to be ascertained.
NAMA has, however, claimed to be addressing the problem with the recent procurement of some VHF radio communication equipment. Closely tied to infrastructure is the absence of an aircraft maintenance hangar. Experts have also fingered this as one of the causes of capital flights out of the country. The commercial airline industry in Nigeria is, at the moment, expanding without commensurate maintenance hangar. This compels operators to take their aircraft to such countries as Ethiopia, Morocco and South Africa for maintenance. The cost of conducting a "C" Check on an aircraft is not less than $150,000, and this comes at an interval of 18 months or about 7,500 flying hours. Imagine the cost of this to the economy.
However, there are plans by Arik Air to build an ultra-modern hangar that could serve the maintenance needs of airlines in the country. Until that is ready, airlines would have to continue spending their hard-earned foreign exchange to keep their planes airworthy. The problem of infrastructure has, however, impacted negatively on the number of persons that pass through the nation's airports, local or international. Recent statistics show that passenger traffic is on the upswing and has actually been the motivator of foreign airlines to ask for extra frequencies, even as those not flying into Nigeria at the moment are falling over themselves to come. For instance, the statistics showed that in 2006, a of total 8,208,195 million passengers passed through all of the nation's airport, while in 2007, it rose steadily to 8,409,944 million passengers.
FAAN's target of 10 million passengers for this year might just be achieved, considering the entrance of more foreign airlines into the country as well as increase in capacity for the domestic carriers. There had also been a steady increase in aircraft movement in and out of the country due to the foray of more foreign airlines into the country and increased capacity for domestic airlines. This low level of annual passenger traffic is a true reflection of aviation development in the country, compared such African countries as South Africa and Egypt, where tourism has helped to boost influx of people into the countries. However, these figures may not be sacrosanct because of the under-declaration of passengers and cargoes that had gone at airports across the country, and which the new airport management automation system sets out to check.
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