As the impact of the COVID19 pandemic continues to wears off over the operations of airlines in the global aviation industry, the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Captain Musa Shuaibu Nuhu, has said the country’s aviation sector has continued to experience steady growth with more airlines processing their Air Operator Certificates (AOCs).
This is just as he stated that the airline industry in the country currently contributes over $1.7 billion to the Gross Domestic Product(GDP), as well as supports over 240,000 jobs directly and indirectly.
Nuhu who spoke at the 27th Annual Conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondence (LAAC) held in Lagos, with the theme: “Aviation Industry: Changing Times, Changing Strategies.” said the rate of connections among cities is increasing in the country, with domestic airlines embarking on aggressive, but strategic expansion in regional connectivity and route expansion.
According to him, in spite of the numerous challenges in the sector, Nigeria’s air transport is making steady progress, adding that the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) in a recent study recognized that the Nigeria air transportation sector has contributed over $1.7 billion in addition to provision of well over 240,00 jobs.
“As our traffic figures is doubling so is the number of young airports increasing with the old ones embarking on massive infrastructure upgrade, expansion and equipment modernization for safety, security, safe air navigation, weather observation and forecasting.”
He said: “In addition, we are also beginning to see operators moving away from poor choice of aircraft, poor or bad route planning and operating models. Following the outbreak of the devastating pandemic which almost brought humanity to its knees, many Nigerian airline operators cutting across established and new entrants are appreciating the economics or intrinsic benefits of operating newer and narrow-body aircraft or single-aisle aircraft like Boeing 707, Boeing 727, Boeing 737, Boeing 757, Airbus A320 and Embraer E-Jet families as their immediate recovery and survival strategy.
“This is linked to prohibitive cost of fuelling, management and maintenance of larger aircraft. In this category are big jets configured for General Aviation such as Boeing 740/777, Boeing 767, Boeing 787, Airbus A330/340/380, MD-11 and MD-11ER. While operators should choose the aircraft that best suits their business plan as choice of decrepit and wrong aircraft-type for flight operations could be greatest undoing of an airline.”
