Guardian

The past 12 months witnessed mixed feelings for travellers, analysts and operators in the Nigerian aviation industry. WOLE SHADARE highlights some of the landmark events in 2012.

AIRPORT terminal remodeling

SOME of the newly remodeled airport terminals, no doubt, made travel to be more enjoyable, not withstanding the controversy that trailed and still trailing the secrecy that led to the execution of the project.

The year kicked off with so much promise of a road map championed by the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah-Ogiewonyi. Many were skeptical of the success of the much-publicised roadmap. Their skepticism stemmed from the fact that roadmaps by successive ministers of Aviation ended with their removal, while many doubted implementation of the scheme, others argued that the minister should be given the benefit of the doubt, to see what she was set to achieve with it.

The minister had vigorously pursued her remodeling project with so much passion. 11 airports are said to be undergoing total rehabilitation.

Despite the controversy that trailed the building of the terminal at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT), Oduah-Ogiewonyi, in October this year, commissioned the over N700 million facility.

Operator of the Murtala Muhammed Airport 2 (MMA2) had queried and faulted the Ministry of Aviation for not abiding respecting a court judgment that ceded the GAT to Bi-Courtney to protect its investment in MMA2.

Both parties are still embroiled in legal battle over the GAT.

Spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Yakubu Dati said the ministry equally plans to invest in aerotropolis, which he said would provide modern infrastructure development that will ensure safety of air operation, enhance facilitation at the airports and generate more revenue for government, operators and other businesses at the airports.

FAAN/Maevis imbroglio

Early this year, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) sacked Maevis, the Nigerian air travel logistics concessionaire from the Murtala Mohammed Airport (MMA) and replaced the firm with the South African affiliate of the Swiss data firm, Societe Internationale de Communication Aeronautic (SITA).

SITA was awarded a management contract to take over operation of the equipment installed at the MMA by Maevis as part of its obligations under a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract.

It would be recalled that on October 1, 2007, the Federal Government, through FAAN, entered into a concession agreement with Maevis. Under the 10-year concession, Maevis was to improve the system for managing passenger and aircraft handling. It invested N7 billion, sourced from Nigerian banks, in acquiring and operating an Integrated Airport Operation Management System (AOMS), Common User Self-Service System (CUSS), Flight Information Display System (FIDS), and Airport Pricing and Billing System from international IT vendors such as Cisco and Dell.

FAAN had been at loggerheads with Maevis almost from the inception of the concession. It frequently stopped the concessionaire from required construction and deployment of new automation equipment that would further take away capturing data and invoicing for services such as aircraft landing and parking from human control.

Maevis went to court when FAAN in the middle of the night locked out the concessionaire in a commando-like style. The cases on this matter have not been decided yet. There is indeed a subsisting court injunction on the matter.

FAAN, on its part – similar to virtually all the concession agreements between it and private sector companies claimed that the contracts were skewed in favour of Maevis and considers the benefits inconsistent with the resources of the federal government. This means that the sharing of the benefits that accrue from the improvement in services at the airport disproportionately favours Maevis.

While this claim may be true or false, the manner in which FAAN has pursued its case has left much to be desired.

Air Nigeria’s bankruptcy

Up till this moment, not a few could decipher what exactly went wrong with Air Nigeria, the biggest Nigeria’s regional airline. Could it be a case of mismanagement? To cut a long story short, the carrier hit a big turbulence and it remains to be seen whether it would bounce back. At a time, the airline was reputed as the biggest airline in Nigeria.

National carrier

One issue that dominated the media this year was the plan by the Federal Government to float a national carrier. Nigerians expressed their support for it. Majority felt that Nigeria, like many other countries of the world deserves a national airline. If not for any other thing, the floating of the airline would help to reduce capital flight by foreign airlines.

For now, no Nigerian carrier has the capacity or capability to compete with the weakest European or American airline. Nigerian airlines are so small and fragmented to compete.

The Director of Operations, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Henry Omeogu disclosed that though the new national carrier would be private sector-driven, adding that the minister was determined to turn around the industry.

“We are going to have about 30 brand new aircraft and they (aircraft) will be our national carrier. The effort will be private sector driven. We will insist that others, who would want to be part this should come with brand new aircraft,” Omeogu stressed.

Laudable as the objective is, the ministry has not done itself any good by keeping people in the dark about the project.

Arik shuts down operations

The seemingly frosty relationship between the minister and Arik on one hand, Arik and the various aviation agencies on the other hand came to the fore in September when the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), the Air Transport Service Senior Staff Association, (ATSSSAN); the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) picketed the airline.

The aviation unions were protesting the alleged N18 billion Arik owes aviation agencies including the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA). The action of the unions elicited condemnation but the agencies justified their action as the only alternative for them to recover money owed them.

Piqued by the action of the group, the airline suspended its entire operations for three days. The decision caused untold hardship for travellers. The airline controlled about 50 per cent of the market and it became very difficult for other carriers to cope in terms of capacity.

While the crisis lasted, the airline accused the minister of graft, alleging that the maltreatment of the company was because the company refused her request to own equity in the firm.

In a swift reaction, the minister described the allegation as baseless, adding that it would be senseless and ridiculous, stressing that there was no way she could have made such demand to a firm that is indebted to the tune of N85 billion.

For the sake of the traveling public, the matter was ‘amicably’ settled between the feuding parties and Arik resumed operations.

Dana crash puts aviation in Nigeria on the spot

June 3, 2012 was one of the darkest moments witnessed in Nigeria. It was a day more than 160 persons met their untimely death. The crash remains the worst accident ever recorded in the history of plane crashes in the country. The accident involving Nigeria’s fastest growing airline shocked the whole world. It came at a time Nigerians were celebrating the ‘feat’ of almost six years of safety in the sector.

The preliminary report of the crash released by the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) put to rest speculations. The report exonerated the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and Dana. The crash was attributed to pilot error, which is said to contribute to 90 per cent of accidents globally.

The report noted that the NCAA and the airline did all what they were supposed to do. But surprisingly, the National Assembly saw it differently. They came up with a report that many considered embarrassing and shocking. Experts decried the report and wondered what expertise they had to ‘unravel’ a complex case of accident investigation.

The ICAO and IATA described as laughable and unacceptable parallel report from the lawmakers.

Airline operators equally expressed disappointment over what they referred to as unguarded statements by some lawmakers, which, they said, are capable of destroying the aviation industry.

They chided and described, as ‘illiterate,’ recommendations recently that the Director-General of the NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren, should be sacked and prosecuted for allowing Dana Air to resume operations and other allegations, which they (operators) said were ‘blatant lies’ against the regulatory authority.

New airline debuts

After over two years of scrutiny, new airlines were awarded Air Operators Certificate (AOC). A new airline, Medview had since November 7, started operations while others are expected to commence services in the New Year.

Medview, which had successfully taken part in Hajj operations in the past five years, has three aircraft- two B737-400 and B737-800.

The entrance of these airlines to the sector would help to tackle the issue of capacity and the stress many travellers went through after the crash of Dana and the bankruptcy of Air Nigeria.