At ASRTI summit, stakeholders seek aviation sector growth in 2025 and beyond

 

Stakeholders in the aviation sector spoke in unison that for the aviation industry to grow and take its rightful place in Africa, there should be a concerted effort by policy makers, airline owners and service providers to chart a path for sustainable development.

 

They made their voices heard at the Fourth Quarter Business Breakfast Meeting organised by the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI) in Lagos with theme Aviation in Nigeria beyond 2025.

 

On his parts, the ARTI President, Dr Gabriel Olowo, expressed concern over government’s intervention in aviation and airlines when the country’s capital expenditure stands at 20 per cent.

 

“I am worried by intervention by government in the budget for 2020. 80 per cent is for the recurrent, while 20 per cent is for capital expenditure, meaning that we have little or nothing for capital development.

 

“We have a deficit budget, meaning that we have element of debt; so, we are not able to provide what we need for road and security.

 

“Then, why bother on intervention when private sector investors are eager to help us out? Should government continue to borrow where private investors can help?

“We have government intervention in our airport. Also, we have government intervention in our airlines that are capital intensive, that is what worries me,” he said.

 

Director-General, Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Mr. Babatunde Irukera called for change in the airlines business and airports experience in Nigeria beyond 2025.

 

He said that the Federal Airports Authority (FAAN) management must make airport places where people want to go and be before passengers took their flights.

 

He said with the record of delay in the airports across the country, Nigeria still record one of the highest numbers of no show of people arriving for their flights.

 

According to him, even, the premium class, which is the VIP sittings, is not comfortable enough to the general sitting experience in other country’s airports and now imagine the general passengers.

 

Irukera said all the passenger want to do is to arrive at the airport and be able to get through the security checkpoints and then proceed to boarding.

 

He called for speedy transformation of the nation’s aviation to stimulate business, saying there is a huge challenge to grow domestic airlines in the country.

 

Irukera said: “For profitability, airline business modules must change; secondly, airports experience must change beyond 2025.

 

“This is because airport all over the world today have now become a comfort zone and not a travel port.

 

“There are far more commercial managers than commercial attenders in JFK DBX; then, we have security and customs put together.

 

“There are more shops at these airports than we have offices and the amount of retail businesses that are going on at these airports are in excess of what aviation gets.’

 

The director-general said that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) must make airports places where people want to go and be before passengers take their flights.

 

He said with the record of delay in the airports across the country, Nigeria still record one of the highest numbers of no-show of people arriving for their flights.

 

Participants called on the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika to update the nation’s aviation policies and implementation strategies to align with current global aviation realities.

 

The quarterly summit advocated the decentralization, digitalisation and devolution of the industry’s operations in preparedness for the anticipated aviation standards of 2025 and beyond.

 

It remains to be seen how much of solution policy makers would adopt to make the sector take its rightful place in Africa now and beyond 2025.

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