Experts Blame Flight Disruptions On Infrastructure Deficit, VIPs, Others

Stakeholders in the nation’s aviation sector have said the extension of sunset airports operating hours by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), is a stop-gap measure to solve the challenges of flight delays and cancellations.

Due to the expected upsurge in traffic occasioned by the Yuletide season and increase in the number of flights disrupted during the period, NCAA and FAAN, last week approved the extension of the operating hours for sunrise and sunset airports across the country by four hours.

However, stakeholders have attributed airlines’ route expansion with requisite resources and manpower, absence of infrastructure, very important personalities (VIPs’) movement, weather conditions, among others, as the cause of flight delays and cancellations in the country and not necessarily the peak period.

They argued that the major airports in Nigeria have inadequate infrastructure in terms of terminal, ramp parking and overstretched air traffic controllers, especially during peak hours leading to chaotic situations and subsequent delays.

In an interaction with LEADERSHIP Weekend, the chief executive officer of Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, Capt John Ojikutu (rtd), said the first step in addressing the root causes of flight delays and cancellations is to categorise the reasons for the disruptions when statistics are released by the authorities.

According to Capt Ojikutu, airlines’ expansion of their route network without the requisite resources and capacity in both human and aircraft were also responsible for the disruption in their operations.

He said, “A lot has been said on the reasons for the number of flight delays or cancellations but the NCAA is not facing the realities as they concern its oversight functions. For me and for other discerning minds, so many factors create the circumstances of flight delays.

“Without absolving the airlines of their shortcomings, not all delays can be directly attributed to them, there are issues of inadequate infrastructure at the airports and air traffic control, ground handling, availability of Jet A1, VIP movements and weather amongst several others contribute to flight delays and cancellation.

“When the statistics of flight delays and cancellations are released, it is important to categorise the reasons; this is the first step in addressing the root causes. In addition, NCAA cannot absolve itself from the chaos arising from the delays and cancellations of flights for allowing the airlines to expand their route network without having the requisite resources and capacity in both human and aircraft.

“The major airports have inadequate infrastructure in terms of terminal, ramp parking and air traffic control are over-stretched, especially during peak hours leading to chaotic situations and subsequent delays.”

Ojikutu further argued that everyone, including the operators and regulators, was responsible for flight delays.

The former commandant of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, advised FAAN to operate a slot system for Abuja and Lagos Airports.

He queried, “Does FAAN have adequate facilities to accommodate all the airlines at any time in Lagos and Abuja in particular? Does FAAN have slots for the airlines in Lagos and Abuja in particular? It was a waste of time to gather together without the individual operator and regulator examining itself in good assessment for solutions. Have seen nothing credible in the outcome of the meeting pronounced by the NCAA. Everyone is an accomplice in the delays and cancellations.”

On his part, the general secretary, Aviation Round Table Initiative (ARTI), Olumide Ohunayo, called for another round of licensing by the NCAA.

Ohunayo said the license should allow the operators to operate like air travel, saying that would create employment and increase the use of the airspace.

“I am of the opinion that the NCAA should do another level of licensing with lesser financial implications that the operators operate like an air taxi with a maximum of about 100 seats in their fleet. They should be 20, 18, 22-seater planes.

These aircraft will be the ones operating at the small airports that we tagged ‘unviable and sunset.’

“If we have traffic, it begins to build and increase the use of our airspace and increase employment and generate employment for our professionals. We have so many pilots without flying times so they can use this period to gain professionalism and as they do this, we have passengers that will begin to pay fares and taxes and airlines and government agencies will generate more revenue.

“With this, there will be increased traffic and the number of passengers in the system generally because they will move from smaller airports to bigger airports. The regulatory agencies should create that new set of operators.

“These aircraft are flying in Europe, Asia, we need to remove this age limit in order to make the airports we tagged ‘unviable’ to be viable. We should see how to make the industry run because without airlines, there would beno airports,” he stated.

Also, an aviation analyst, Amos Akpan, mentioned aviation agencies, government organisations, fuel suppliers, telecommunications, VIPs’ movements, ground handling companies, including passengers as contributory factors to flight delays and cancellations in the industry.

He also cited weather issues and deficient infrastructure provided by FAAN, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and other government agencies as some of the causes of flight delays and cancellation in Nigeria.

Akpan said, “Unless we accept the impact of each of the above mentioned in the efficient delivery of service to their consumers, we will remain in the complaint and blame zones without growing.

“My point is, if you know what each contributor is doing wrong, bring it to their notice, and ensure that an appropriate solution is applied to fix it. For instance, the Immigration is fixing the menace of manual processes with the corruption it harbours. Our honourable minister of aviation is fixing the bottlenecks against dry lease of aircraft by Nigerian airlines.

“Let each agency, service provider, including the airlines take responsibility for their role in these flight delays. Those that pretend they don’t know how their activities contribute to flight delays should be told.”

Akpan insisted that the airlines could not magically provide excellent services in an environment where other inputs were inefficiently served and called on all the organisations to up their games to meet the industry standards.

He emphasised that the best planning for flight operations was to input every activity in an operation’s specification submitted to and approved by the NCAA.

He added that the availability of data would help to reduce flight delays and cancellations among the airlines, but regretted that most companies avoid giving out credible and accurate data to avoid paying the appropriate taxes to the government.