Foreign airlines’ dominance hurts Nigerian carriers
Amid stiff competition, European airlines are outdoing each other and deploying numerous strategies to gain dominance in Nigeria’s juicy air travel market. Currently, over 26 foreign airlines operate in Nigeria’s travel market, which for a long time, has been dominated by European carriers, especially the early comers into the country.
In the last five years, however, there has been a paradigm shift in the market with the coming of Middle East and American carriers into the Nigerian market.
Head of Middle East, Africa and Central Asia Sales for British Airways and responsible for these markets, Paolo De Renzis, told woleshadare.net that in Africa, European airlines have a very strong position in particular in Nigeria.
He said: “Africa is one of the most important markets; particularly South Africa and Nigeria are some of the biggest markets. “Everywhere is challenging. The fact that you have competition is challenging.
As far as you deal with some common issues, it is challenging. What we are trying to do is to as a company, is to rise above the challenges by making our operations safe and successful.
If we have been there for 80 years, it means we can master challenges.” The dominance of foreign carriers in Africa and the Nigerian market has seriously affected the growth of the continent’s carriers and the hardest hit are Nigerian airlines that do not have the capacity to compete with their foreign counterparts.
Equally worrisome is the signing of Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASAs) with other nations at a time the nation’s carriers are not ready to compete.
The coming of the Middle East airlines, particularly Emirates Airlines and Qatar Airways, has led to a major ‘slice’ of the market share, formerly dominated by European carriers such as British Airways, Air France, KLM and Lufthansa.
Other European carriers operating into Nigeria include Iberia Airlines, Alitalia, Turkish Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. The development has also caused a sharp drop in both market share and revenue of the European carriers.
To aviation experts who spoke to woleshadare.net, stated that the air transport situation in Nigeria is becoming very interesting. They said that from a few foreign carriers that were flying into Nigeria a few years ago, the number continues to increase by the day.
To them, unfortunately, the foreign carriers have taken over the domestic market, stressing that the development has been accelerated by the unfavourable aviation policies being signed by the government with other foreign countries – a policy that grants them (foreign airlines) multiple entry points into Nigeria.
This, to them, is detrimental to the growth and development of the domestic arm of the industry. Former Secretary General of African Airlines Association, Nick Fadugba, recently said African airlines collectively carry only 20 per cent of the air passenger traffic to and from Africa.
He noted that Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa and the most vibrant air transport market on the continent. He said: “It is hard to rationalise and justify why Nigerian airlines have such a small share of their own market.
But the fact remains that Nigeria is a signatory to the Abuja Treaty of 2004 under which the Yamoussoukro Decision of 1999, liberalising African skies, is legally-binding.
I believe that Nigeria should stand by the Yamoussoukro Accord and honour the Abuja Treaty.” The global aviation consultant reiterated that the fact that a few local airlines are in a position to respond to the competitive challenge posed by Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways and others.
He noted: “For example, Arik Air has traffic rights between Lagos and Addis but the Nigerian passenger traffic is normally going beyond Addis. Most Nigerian travellers are not going to Addis Ababa; they are going to Dubai and to China.
“I would have wished that when Arik Air entered into that agreement they had negotiated traffic rights beyond Addis Ababa or formed a partnership to feed traffic to Ethiopian Airlines and vice-versa.”
