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Share blue, red line rail links to airports, experts beg Lagos state

  • Say sector performance below par, score CAA Act, NSIB very successful

 

A group of aviation professionals under the aegis of Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRT) has expressed the hope that the newly commissioned Blue and Red Line Rails in Lagos state would share links with the airport terminal building as the experts lamented the lack of connectivity of the Abuja light to the Abuja airport.

President, ASRT, Dr. Gabriel Olowo in his welcome address at the first quarter Breakfast Business Meeting (BBM) held on Thursday in Lagos, entitled, “Aviation in Nigeria Beyond 2023 General Elections: Challenges and Prospects”,   which had an economist, Prof. Patrick Utomi as a guest speaker with an invitation to frontline presidential candidates lamented, “The light rail line in Abuja does not connect to the airport terminal building either. Were there no plans before these projects were executed?

Olowo stated that one could only hope the newly commissioned Blue and Red Line rails in Lagos would share links with the airport terminal buildings.

President, ART, Dr. Gbenga Gabriel Olowo

Nigeria has one of the poorest systems that accessing major airport terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port-Harcourt with no rail system connecting commuters from city centres to the airports, thereby making inter-terminal access very cumbersome for air travelers and users of the aerodromes.

The plan by Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL) operators of the Murtala Muhammed Airport 2 (MMA2) to build a light rail to link both the domestic and international Lagos airport terminal was thwarted by the Federal Government since the inception of the commissioning of the terminal in April 2007.

Taking appraisal of the aviation industry since the first quarter of 2022, Olowo stated that the future of the Nigerian aviation industry largely depends on how the sector deals with the numerous challenges currently impeding its development, adding that with the 2023 general elections in view, it was quite incumbent to prepare for the future of aviation in Nigeria.

The group took a holistic view of the sector in eight years of the current and passed a verdict that with six percent of recommendations implemented; 42 percent of work still in progress and 52 percent of work which remained unscratched, disclosing that the sector had performed below par.

Analysing the government’s key performance indices as a national carrier project which he said is a stillbirth owing to the plans by some domestic carriers to truncate the projects by going to court to stop the project. The hearing of the matter comes up on February 16, 2023.

Others are National Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) which is unborn; airport concessioning which has remained inconclusive; civil aviation Acts that are rated successful and the transformation of the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) to now intermodal transport agency Nigeria Safety Investigative Bureau (NSIB) is said to be successful.

His words, “We’re grateful to the professionals in the CAA and the NSIB for their dutiful role in ensuring aviation safety. Failure to establish some aviation agency boards as stated in the Civil Aviation Act (CAA) violates Section 29:1 of the Civil Aviation Act, as contained in Section 11:1 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution.”

The group took a swipe at the recent industrial action that paralysed aviation activities penultimate week when workers of Nigeria Aviation Handling Company Plc (NAHCo) embarked on strike.  The action paralysed activities in the sector with one airline disclosing that it lost over N500 million to the action.

Nigerian airlines

“Questions calling for answers amidst the avoidable negligence include: who takes responsibility for the financial losses airlines and service providers incurred during the recent strike that disrupted business activities at the airport? Poor communication and crisis management exacerbated the strike’s collateral damages. A domestic carrier reportedly lost 500 million Naira due to MM2’s abrupt shutdown.”

“The ASRT strongly condemns the strike and management’s inadequate response. With apologies, adequate compensation should be provided to all parties affected. Regrettably, if the plan of change is not higher than the pain of remaining the same, people don’t change.”

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