The Chief Operating Officer (COO), Ibom Air, Mr George Uriesi, said domestic airlines lose at least N4.3 billion annually due to their restriction to operate 24 hours flight daily to the airports of their choice.
Uriesi made this known while speaking at the 26th Annual Conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) on Thursday in Lagos
The theme of the conference is “Sunset Airports: Economic and Safety Implications”.
Sunset Airports are daylight airports, which refer to airports that do not have landing facilities, so airlines can only operate there in the night.
However, there are some of them, including the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, the Margret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar and Benin Airport, where night facilities were installed, including airfield lighting but FAAN has not allowed flights to operate there in the night.
Uriesi informed the conference that the restriction had led to a huge underutilisation of aircraft fleets by the Nigerian airlines as against the global industry standards.
According to Uriesi in his paper, ‘Maximising Runway Utilisation: A Nigerian Airline Perspective,’ the country’s carriers are losing an average of four million naira per flight.
“N12 million in every flight, N360 million in 90 flights and N4.3 billion annually on every flight lost to sunset airport operations.
“They are partly because too many impediments are present in the operating environment that limit airline productivity.
“These include limited runway availability across the domestic network, multiple operational infrastructure deficiencies, poor organizational and many others.”
In a bid to solve the challenge, Uriesi appealed to the government to prioritise airfield infrastructure and provide the necessary Instrument Landing System (ILS).
The airline boss added that accompanied accessories for every airport, while also keeping the aerodromes open to meet the needs of airlines and other users.
Besides, he advised that the government should make current, approved master plans a regulatory requirement for every airport and illegalize non-adherence to the master plans by any organisation.
“Establishing 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,” he added.
The Chairman of the league, Mr Olusegun Koiki, in his opening address, urged the federal government to urgently come to the financially needs of the ailing domestic operators in the country.
