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IATA: Nigerian carriers can’t compete with poor infrastructure, high operational costs 

…Says govt clued, understands value of aviation to growth

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has maintained that Nigeria’s two biggest airports, the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja boast the record of aerodromes with the highest cost operation for airlines.

The Vice-President IATA for Africa and Middle-East, Kamil Al-Awadhi who spoke to Aviation Metric at the just concluded IATA 80th Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), said this is made worse by bad infrastructure with the highest costs.

He however commended the Nigerian government for trying to tackle many of the infrastructure challenges and for taking the industry seriously.

He stated there is no way there can be such taxes and expect airlines and others to be profitable, lamenting that Nigerian carriers can’t compete.

He further stated that African airlines have put themselves in a terrible situation to compete, saying they are not financially viable with excess charges.

His words, “My position on that has not changed. Lagos and Abuja have the highest cost operation for airlines, but I thank the Nigerian government for settling all the bills and taking aviation seriously, very clued and understands the value of aviation for its country and contribution of aviation to the country.”

“They are actively trying to look at the standards of the infrastructure, airlines and airport infrastructure and working to at least marching the infrastructure with the cost of the same infrastructure because they don’t march because of very bad infrastructure with the highest costs. That is a good thing.”

Lagos and Abuja with decrepit facilities are said to be the most expensive airports in the world as the passenger service charge is $100 per passenger. In contrast, Doha, the best airport in the world, charges $44 for that service and Dubai charges $40.

Not a few stakeholders believe that this challenge was burdening the country’s aspiration to be competitive and it is important for Nigeria as a nation to cease taxing seeds and, instead, foster an environment that encourages businesses to thrive.

Speaking on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) for African airlines, the IATA Chief said the airlines choose not to because they don’t have the resources to achieve the IOSA standards.  

“If you notice in Africa, we also have a different standard called ESA; that is generally for small operators with less number of aircraft. We realised that the cost is high. We have a small version for airlines that cannot afford the cost which is the ESA standard which is the baby of IOSA standard.”

“You can’t be an IATA member unless you completed IOSA but you can have IOSA and not be an IATA member like we have with some low-cost carriers. It is good for airlines to take IOSA because it is beneficial to them. IOSA is a high standard and currently, the highest safety standard in the world. To get to that standard, you have to invest in training, documentation, equipment and so forth.”

Elaborating on IOSA and its impact on global aviation safety Al-Awahdi noted that IOSA is the highest standard of all regulations and it is for a reason.

He reiterated that a lot of work went into IOSA which was created in July 2003 in Montreal, Canada to develop these standards, adding that in his opinion, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) did not do a good job on the oversight of user programme and the evidence from this is that you have FAA wanting foreign airlines to go to the US and the TCO programme in Europe; hence, the lack of trust in the standards of ICAO’s oversight on each state.

“It was decided years ago that to be a member of IATA, you need to have IOSA because this is the standard that we can trust to have member airlines maintain our quality and they are excellent standards by all measures, with FAA, Singaporean Airlines, Australians, EU all accept IOSA as the ultimate standard. IOSA is just addressing airlines and safety. They don’t operate in space; they operate with a big massive ecosystem. IOSA focuses basically on airlines and not any involvement with government.”

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