NIGAV Adds Glamour To Awards, Seeks Queen, King of Air Winners

To make the annual Nigeria Aviation Award (NIGAV) more relevant and entertaining, the organisers have added a new category that will determine who wins the Queen of The Air or King of The Air Awards in Nigeria.

With this new category which is the first in aviation history all over the world, NIGAV Award will be looking at the member of the airlines’ crew who is smart, who can speak clearly, eloquently; who can make his announcements very well and who understands how to handle passengers very well.

Organiser and coordinator of the NIGAV Awards, Fortune Idu who disclosed the new arrangement in a chat in Lagos recently said that they have decided to bring a bit of entertainment into the award because travel experience has entertainment aspects, comfort, joy and a feeling of goodness.

Idu said that “we now say we could have the air crew compete amongst themselves on individual bases. But the greater percentage of this evaluation of their competence will be on winners on how they handle their safety announcements. So it is not about the profession itself; we are not looking at the beauty, handsomeness, or finest member of the crew. We are looking at the member of the crew who is smart, who can speak clearly, eloquently; who can make his announcements very well; who understands how to handle passengers”.

Idu also made it clear, that such crew member will win the award which they call the Queen of The Air or the King of The Air, stressing that it is the first time it will done all over the world.

Emphasising that the cabin crew had always been of interest to them, Idu said that, the crew were among the list of opportunities and categories they have for the award in previous events, as they were included. For the 2018 edition, he said that they are starting with the crew first and that they have this firm belief, that if they succeed, the airlines will join the fray.

Idu pointed out that what informed the crew involvement was that NIGAV Awards believes that, it is also part of increasing passengers’ experience, adding that “it is also the behavior and composure of crew members and how they handle passengers on board. Part of aviation security is actually the human behavior. There will be great inflight experience if we have crew members that have good self-confidence, understands their roles, very safety conscious as they can manage passengers very well.

He however, pointed out that, among all the awards that they have been giving; the Queen of The Air and King of The Air are the only award that has cash reward. He also added that they are equally the only award that is on sight assessment.

On challenges, he said finance is the first challenge and that funding of the event comes from money which are actually raised from other activities which the FCA International, the parent organization is involved in.

Another challenge, Idu said is the fact that aviation industry players still sees it as a last minute to respond thing. Which means nobody talks to them until some few days to the event.

“That is one of our biggest challenge. We want to have an event that the industry can flow along with us. From the beginning, the airlines, the airports, the regulators and safety management agencies, insurance and all those who have interest in the industry can flow with us from the beginning, so that we can be able to evaluate their responses and make plans”, Idu pleaded.

Explaining that there are over 40 categories this year, the organizer said “We are looking at various categories and over 40 categories have actually been earmarked. Some of them have been taken, some of them have not been taken. We have two different levels of recognition. Those who will get public nominations is considered as an award; those who we now give award is considered as recognition. You cannot tell me that the industry players and the leaders of the industry, even if as civil servants, they did not come out to be voted for are not doing anything. I know they are doing something and it is my business to recognize them and that encourages them”.

“When you recognize them, you are telling them that we now you are doing this and we know you can do better. Overtime, they will not come down from the level which we have found them. So that is what we are doing. Those two sections of awards are going to be given and the last one now whish is on stage award.  In all these, we have over 40 categories. We have airline of the year, aviation personality, airport manager of the year. We covered in MRO, retail, airport taxi, and media. We covered in all sectors of the industry. Everybody is there and we are getting response but it is just slow”, Idu said.

Explaining that they are bringing foreign airlines on board to participate in the awards ceremony this year, Idu expressed appreciation to local airlines and other players in the industry which have always shown interest in the award