Mitigating agony of flight diversions, cancellations

 

The past one week witnessed perhaps unforeseen flight diversions and cancellations. While it lasted, it left a bitter pill in the mouth of airlines, passengers and the nation for the huge embarrassment. WOLE SHADARE writes that never shall the country witness such huge economic losses again

Shock amid new equipment

The recent flight delays and cancellations experienced by airlines came as a shock and embarrassment to the nation. It was shocking in the sense that it came at a time the country just acquired Category 3 Instrument Landing System (ILS).

The Federal Government had acquired the high power instrument to ensure that aircraft land in almost zero visibility situations. Good as it may be, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) had begun the installment of the equipment at a time harmattan haze was at its peak, leading to the inevitable situation that led to flights originally for Lagos to divert elsewhere.

Several airlines have been rendered moribund, while some offer partial services as a result of extreme weather events.

Weather conspiracy

Weather continues to play a significant role many aviation accidents and incidents. While National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports most commonly find human error to be the direct accidents caused, weather is a primary contributing factor in 23 per cent of all aviation accidents.

Extreme weather events present major challenges for transportation and are becoming more frequent and intense.

Weather is the single largest contributor to delays in the efficiency of flight operation. It is becoming the dominant cause of delay in Nigeria.

Flights can incur delays while airborne or on the ground, for example, a late arrival of one flight may cause a late departure of the next flight on the itinerary of the aircraft.

Moreover, visibility and a minimum cloud ceiling, as well as certain crosswind maxima are required for a safe landing or take-off.

In rainy seasons, airports in Nigeria experiences frequent bouts of severe convective weather that blocks en-route or terminal airspace and results in very high delays.

Critical weather phenomenon reduces the operational capacity of regions entire airspace through delays, diversion and flight cancellations.

However, this concern for safety comes at a cost and it leads without doubt to traffic delays, diversions, and cancellations. It left a lot of scar to passengers who were left stranded and many others that could not make it to their destinations on time.

Aviation, probably more than any other mode of transportation, is greatly affected by weather. From thunderstorms to reduced visibility due to hazy conditions, every phase of flight has the potential to be impacted by weather.

Nigeria, Ghana and other West African countries are some of the places in the world where harmattan haze still bring flight operations to a halt. The trend has become wearily familiar.

Effects of weather

Commercial aviation in Nigeria must deal with these adverse weather effects. The cost is a significant budget item. It is one of the perennial weather phenomena that have adverse impact on flight.

Nigeria has a relatively fledgling domestic aviation market, which is constrained by high tariffs, high fuel costs, relatively low load factor and limited routes.

A typical domestic operator’s Direct Operational Cost (DOC) per flight can range between $3,000 for a regional jet type aircraft with seating capacity of 50-70 passengers to Abuja and $4,000 for a similar flight to Kano. Direct costs due to weather on airline operations can be separated into several categories: diversion, cancellation and delay.

The lowest passenger movements are always in November/December/January. Even though there may be other variables, obviously the effect of weather may have a significant impact on these reductions and the economic effects on domestic operators cannot be downplayed.

Though the costs associated with delays and cancellations vary, airlines taking such actions risk eroding passenger goodwill and that results in lost future revenue.

The impact goes beyond just the lost revenue from ticket sales. The list includes added costs for rescheduling crews, including transportation and hotel costs.

Every December-January, airlines are forced to cancel scheduled flights for several days because of the poor visibility imposed on the nation’s airports by cloudy weather. This period has been no exception. In the absence of modern landing facilities, the airports are virtually shut down.

The irony is that the harmattan haze came at a time government acquired ILSs for many of the international airports across the country. They least expected that weather could play a fast one on them at a time of installation of the equipment.

Airports get Cat 3 ILS

Most of the airports with exception of a few are now upgraded with a precision approach system that would provide precision guidance for pilots to land in such low visibility conditions. The bad days are over.

 

The advantages of having navigational aids like an ILS and approach light components at airports in Nigeria is that it provides precision vertical and horizontal navigation guidance information during approach and landing.

The attractiveness of ILS lies in the economy of its avionics costs and its wide international acceptance. Technological advances over the years have yielded great improvement in accuracy, dependability, and maintainability.

Presently it is only the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja that have the Category III ILS, while the others are still stuck with the Category II, which is less precise. They are receiving attention as well.

The era of human estimation of visual range is becoming a past time and the government needs to equip the Nigerian Meteorological Agency with modern equipment also to enhance air safety.

In spite of the best efforts of government, there is still a lot to be done in this very crucial sector in the country.

Expert’s view

Group Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd) of the Aviation Security Consultant said the CAT III ILS upgrade had been long in coming for 20 years, but still regretted that most of the airports are yet to get airfield lighting for night operations.

According to him, it will cost less than $1 million each for the 10 airportts dotted across the country.

Should lightening be installed, airlines will be able to go to places like Owerri, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Benin, Calabar and Enugu among others beyond 7p.m., thus enhancing the businesses of private airlines using those airports.

 

Last line

Government and its agencies in charge of this important sector should spare no efforts in ensuring seamless flight operations in the country’s airspace in order to make it not only safer, but also more pleasurable for passengers.

 

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