New entrant into Nigeria’s aviation sector, United Nigeria Airlines is making significant steps in its operation as the carrier recently announced that it has carried 25,000 passengers in the past two months of it operation in the industry.
According to statistics by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), over one million passengers were processed by airport managers at the Murtala Mohammad Airport Ikeja between January and March this year with a total of 739,560 passengers for domestic and 323,751 for international passengers.
Speaking in Lagos with aviation reporters on the airlines plans in the sector, the Chairman, United Nigeria Airline, Dr. Obiora Okonkwo says, its operations, routes expansion and additional aircraft acquisition will be done in phases to avoid biting more than they can chew.
Speaking with aviation reporters in Lagos, Dr. Okonkwo said, their medium term plan is to consolidate on their domestic operations while eyeing the actualization of flying into the West African region.
According to newsbulletinng.com , he said, the responses the airline has been getting from the market was heartwarming, adding that in the next couple of months, it would add another aircraft to its fleet.
“We are hoping that we should increase our air fleet very soon we are looking at the next couple of months 2-3 months, a lot of plans are already in the way, we have been happy so far with the responses we have been getting from the market”.
Dr. Okonkwo emphasized that the strong vision of the airline is to fly to unite which means safety in all their operations.
” We are glad today, it is operational, it is offering services to thousands of people in Nigeria”.
On the choice of the aircraft type ERJ145, the United Nigeria Airline boss said, it was the best for them and convenient to build routes and give passengers the quality service they deserve.
“We had a thorough due diligence before we embarked on embraced, the fuel saving capacity is an advantage, the passenger load which is 50 is an advantage, we thought as a new airline it might take us a while while to fill up the aircraft, so we felt that with a fuel effective fuel utilization with not too huge passenger load, we might be able to manage our good and bad days”.
He stated that, the airline has assembled some of the best brains with the requisite experiences in the industry to run the airline, stressing that he was proud of the team with the successes so far recorded in the past 8 weeks of operations.
“We are very proud of our team. For us team work is very
important in what we are doing, staff welfare is important, family spirit is important and we are bringing all our experiences we have in all our areas of endeavours into this aviation business.
I seek your support to help us be where we need to be for the service to mankind to the glory of God”.
In the area of employment, Dr. Okonkwo said, employment opportunities have been created in the different areas of operations, adding that, with the commencement of flight, they have engaged a whole lot of people with some of them up to 50 to 60% having their first experience in aviation after undergoing the required mandatory trainings.
” You know is very strict, there must be training, there must be indoctrination, there must be training, there must be standard they have to meet, for us this number of people are those who have benefited in the opportunities we have created.
“More people are in the pipeline as we expand our routes, open our operational base and that will go on and on, the more aircraft we have, the more people that will be employed”, he added.
Giving a breakdown of their passenger traffic in the past two months of operations, the Chief Operating Officer, COO, Mazi Osita Okonkwo said, during the period, they carried 25,000 passengers and currently the passenger load is 3,200 per week.
“Within four weeks, we have done 25,000 passengers already during that period, currently we are doing about 3,200 passengers every week”.
He reechoed that, they would not be in a hurry in in increasing their capacity to do things but rather it would be gradually, organically and systematically.
“We have four aircraft, we could have started all the four aircraft the same day but we are an organization that is very, very deep rooted into learning and into knowing our limitations and growing into our experiences, so step by step we are creating the necessary systems, processes institutions and organs that will help us achieve the target we have set for ourselves”.
Furthermore, statistic by FAAN, showed that a total of 149,557 passengers arrived while 174,194 passengers departed through the international wing of the airport during the period bringing the total passenger traffic to 323,751.
At the domestic wing, 402,519 passengers arrived the Murtala Muhammed Airport terminal 1, also known as the GAT while departure recorded 337,041 bringing the total number of passengers on the domestic routes to 739,560 between January and March.
According to nigerianflightdeck.com, A total of 17, 286 aircraft were recorded at the airport during the first quarter of the year with records showing domestic aircraft movements 12,744 while international aircraft movement was 4,542.
Commenting on the statistics, the airport manager South West, Mrs Victoria Shin-Aba said there was no significant drop as Lagos remained the business nerve centre of the country as most flights terminates at the airport.
Shin-Aba explained that there was a gradual reawakening from the Covid even with the second wave not discouraging passengers from travelling “It is like a gradual reawakening, a gradual restart away from the Covid issue, there came the second wave but that did not discourage people from travelling so, it is growing gradually”.
On Covid protocols, the airport manager remarked, “You see I use to tell people that if there is one thing the airport has been able to do as soon as you get into the airport environment this Covid protocol is activated. You can get to town everywhere, you don’t see people obeying it but as soon as you get to the airport, we enforce it, people would not want to cooperate but we are enforcing it but for staff and passengers, people are cooperating”.
“If you don’t put on your mask we wouldn’t allow you into the terminal building and even if you are in the terminal building and you remove it we have some task force going around correcting people please mask up, so there has been a lot of cooperation from the passengers as well as other airport users”.
She however noted with displeasure the number of family members escorting their travelling passenger to the airport
“We have been having some challenges along that area, you know our culture the way we do things, one person is travelling, ten people will follow but we still try as much as possible to discourage people”.
The airport manager noted that the challenge they were having with VIP’s parking indiscriminately at the departure area have reduced as there was a task force in place consisting of other security agencies that advice them to move down.
She explained that the Covid has negatively affected the finances of the organisation. “The disadvantage of covid that is what affects us the most, it has affected our income as an organization, airlines are not coming back due to the pandemic, people are not travelling as they used to be”.
“For the advantage, let me say the consciousness and the new normal doing things in a different way, people now can come from home though our environment really doesn’t encourage that, our own is services you have to move, you have to meet people, you have to work but all the same, meetings now are done virtually”
She advised passengers to reduce the number of people coming to the airport with them and get to the airport on time as a result of protocols adding that they were working to ensure passengers comfort, safety and security of every airport users.
Why We Chose Embraer Aircraft, By United Nigeria Airlines
Obiora Okonkwo (PHD) says the airline chose Embraer ERJ145 aircraft type for its operations because of the aircraft’s fuel saving capacity.
According to chiedualbinus.com, said that based on the aircraft’s effective fuel utilization and not too huge passenger load, the airline felt these advantages would help the airline in managing its operations.
Okonkwo said the airline that has only Nigerians as employees, has a plan to consolidate on local flights and after sometime, target regional flights. He said the airline was “negotiation and finalizing agreements on next two Embraers” and may consider bigger sized airplanes in future, depending on the pros and cons of aircraft types.
