Airlines Lose 4.3bn

Nigerian Airlines Lose #4.3bn Annually to Restriction of Sunset Flight Operations—Uriesi 

ZAINAB JUNAID

The Chief Operating Officer, COO of Ibom Air, Mr George Uriesi, has said that Nigerian Airlines are currently deprived of a profit worth #4.3bn annually from being restricted to operate sunset flights. 

Mr Uriesi said this while delivering a paper titled “Maximizing Runway Utilization: A Nigerian Airline Perspective at the 26th annual conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondence (LAAC) themed – ‘Sunset Airports: Economic and Safety Implications’ held on Thursday 28, 2022 at Sheraton, Ikeja,  Lagos.

He explained that the airlines were 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 lack of sunset airport operations in the country. 

This restriction according to him, had led to huge under-utilisation of aircraft fleets by the Nigerian Airlines as against the global industry standards. 

Uriesi said the setback is due partly because of too many impediments in the operating environment that limit airline productivity, which includes limited availability of runways across domestic network, multiple operational infrastructure deficiencies, poor organisation and many others. 

In view of these setbacks, he appealed to the government to prioritise airfield infrastructure and provide the necessary Instrument Landing System (ILS) and accompanying accessories for every airport, while also keeping the aerodromes open to meet the needs of airlines and other users. 

He also advised that government should make approved master plans a regulatory requirement for every airport and make non adherence to the master plans by any organization illegal. 

“There is need to establish a local aircraft lessor /financing vehicle that would allow for the domiciling of aircraft payments in local currency would make a huge difference to the air transport sector in Nigeria,” Uriesi maintained.