National airline for Nigeria by end of year
Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Sirika Hadi, has told journalists in Abuja that Nigeria would have a very strong and viable national airline before the end of 2017.
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Mr Hadi further urged the need for Nigeria to own a national airline, stating that the airline was one of the target he set out to achieve as an aviation minister.
“When we came in, we were very clear on our targets and goals and what we set out to achieve, and we did say Nigeria does need a national airline,”he said.
According to Hadi, the national carrier will be driven by public and private sector partnership. Taking a clue from the Ethiopian airline, it has proven that the government is incapable of running a national carrier on its own.
“We are going to establish this national carrier and it will give good service. This is the solution because Nigeria has the market, we are 180 million and in the West African market, we are 450 million and Nigeria is a major player,” he added.
This news comes at a time when Nigeria’s aviation industry is already experiencing a lot of problems. Looking at these problems, one would wonder if a national carrier is what Nigeria needs now.
Not that Nigeria does not need a national airline, but there are more pressing issues facing the aviation sector that need to be sorted out first in order to have an efficient national airline.
Arik Airline, which can now win the award for the worst airline in Nigeria, was at a time the best airline in Nigeria. Hardly does a month go by without the airline trending for disappointing its passengers. Even the staff of the company are not contented working there but they are forced to stay glued because of the economic situation of the country. If these issues are not addressed before having a national carrier, the fate of Arik air would befall Nigerians.
The government also needs to take urgent steps on training Nigerians and expose them to flight experience. If this is not done immediately, the country might not boast of citizens that can pilot a plane in the next 10 years. The government should work with the private sector to achieve all these instead of having a national carrier.
Facilities in airport terminals
Most of the airport terminals in Nigeria have inadequate and poorly maintained cooling systems. Whenever the airport is jam-packed, you see people sweating. Passengers have collapsed on several occasions while waiting at the arrival or departure terminals. Most airports make use of standing fans instead of air conditioners and many of the toilets at the airports are in horrendous conditions.
Airport infrastructure
Nigeria has 26 airports, 22 are owned by the federal government and managed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), which is actually a huge mark in the aviation sector because several African countries don’t have these number of airports. However, the major challenge in the sector is the lack of maintenance and no developmental policy to help improve the sector.
Most of the airports lack the basic equipment and facilities such as passenger facilitation equipment like flight information display system, perimeter fencing, adequate fire cover and airfield lighting. It is worth noting that without airfield lighting, airplanes cannot land in an airport at night.
