Nigerias failure to modernise its major airports and reduce aviation charges is denying it the opportunity of becoming an air transport hub in Africa, Oyetunji Abioye reportsAviationexperts and stakeholders are worried that Nigeria is losing airport revenues running into billions of naira to other African countries yearly as a result of not being a major air transport hub.For instance, they note that Ghana, Egypt and South Africa, which have either become regional hubs or being positioned for the status, are gradually taking over the premium passenger market from Nigeria.According to them, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, should have been major air transport hubs in Africa by now, if not for lack of planning.Official statistics reveal that the MMIA is the seventh busiest airport in Africa, with approximately 6.3 million annual passengers.This, aviation analysts said, was a shame given the fact that Nigeria is a major economy in Africa, with over 150 million population.Some aviation analysts, who spoke with our correspondent on Friday, said Nigerias lack of hub status in air transport was the reason the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria was making a paltry N25bn annually from the airports.A member of Vision 2020 and aviation expert, Mr. Chris Aligbe, lamented that while major countries in Africa like Egypt, South Africa and Ghana were creating thousands of employment for their citizens through their hub status, Nigeria was battling with unemployment in the midst of opportunities.Aligbe said it would take a deliberate attempt by the government, through a major policy thrust, to make the MMIA a hub on the continent.He said, The MMIA has outlived its usefulness. We need to build a befitting airport that can serve as a major hub in the region. I have said that government does not have the quantum of money needed to build our airports. It will take a private sector investment to build our airports to acceptable international standards. Rather than wasting money on upgrading them, they should be put on concession. This is the trend globally.Lagos cannot be an air transport hub except the government introduces a policy to make it so. For Lagos to become a hub, we need to build a sizeable transit lounge where passengers coming from Europe and other parts of the world can transit to other parts of West Africa and Africa.Aligbe also said, We need to deliberately bring down our aeronautical charges such as aircraft parking and landing charges. This will attract foreign airlines to the country. When the airlines come, it will boost non-aeronautical activities, which will create employment and bring in large amount of revenues. Most major airports of the world make over 70 per cent of their revenues from non-aeronautical charges.Aligbe, a former spokesman of the liquidated Nigeria Airways, said it was unfortunate that Ghana, which had less potential than Nigeria, was fast becoming a hub in West Africa.He said, Ghana has engaged foreign airlines and it is fast becoming a hub in West Africa. It has given several relief packages to attract them and Ghana is almost taking over premium passengers in the region. First and business class flight tickets from Accra to Europe and other parts of the world are now cheaper than what obtains in Nigeria. And from a study, most high- profile passengers from Nigeria now prefer to travel through Ghana. It is a deliberate attempt by Ghana to take over the premium passenger market from Nigeria.Aligbe further pointed out that Nigeria needed a dominant carrier in form of a national carrier to become a hub. Such a carrier, he said, would drive the nations hub status.A former Executive Director, Bellview Airlines, Mr. Gbenga Olowo, emphasised the need to allow private operators to take over Lagos and Abuja airports under a concession arrangement, if Nigeria hopes to become a hub.He said, Concession or total privatisation of our airports should not be jettisoned. That is the modern day approach. See airport companies of France, British Airport companies, among others.Rather than remodel the antique airports with N90bn, PPP should reflect on how to construct new terminals at the Lagos airport where 70 per cent traffic demand and revenue flow exist. During the civil war in Sierra Leone and Liberia, open fields were used as airport terminals and the process was much easier than the present experience at MMA1.No remodelling or restructuring effort will satisfy the high demand need of that airport, he added.The Chairman, Aviation Round Table, Captain Dele Ore, said the MMIA could only become a hub if the right thing was done.He said, You cannot be a hub when you do not have that dominant carrier that has its own airport, and other facilities. You cannot have Lagos as a hub when you still have these charges as high as they are now. There is no attraction to come to Lagos. Aviation fuel or jet A1 is so expensive that it pays airlines to just fly across to Republic of Benin or Togo to refuel and come to Nigeria.Since the MMIA was put in place about 31 years ago as a copy of the Schiphol Airport of Amsterdam, no major rehabilitation has been effected on it, let alone reconstruction.Schiphol was reported by the Airports Council a few years ago as having over 46 million recorded passenger traffic, with over 440,000 movements and more than 1.5 million cargo traffic.The Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Dr. Harold Demuren, recently described the facilities at the MMIA as the architecture of the 1970s, which could not cope with the current level of activities.But in Nigeria, experts wonder why the political and professional leaders that have been at the helm of affairs at the MMIA have not done much in the development of the airports.The facilities at all areas of the airport have decayed. It now takes longer time to wait for baggage at the airport than the time they spend in the air. Congestion has become a major feature of the airports at the moment.Experts said the development plan of the MMIA stipulated a periodic development of about five apronsA, B, C, D and E. They added that only D and E were constructed in the early 1970s, when the airport was completed.They noted that aprons A, B and C and a terminal had yet to be constructed and that nobody had explained the long delay or the total neglect.They noted that there was no point calling for a hub when the MMIA or Abuja airport had no transit area where passengers going beyond the airport could immediately continue their journey.
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