Bi-Courtney seeks two entry points for foreign carriers

The Federal Government has been asked to limit the entry points of international carriers to just one or two points to help Nigerian carriers partake in the market share of the nation’s aviation sector. Managing Director of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, operators of the ultra modern Murtala Muhammed Airport 2 (MMA2), Christophe Pinnick, disclosed this to New Telegraph at the weekend. As a condition, he said that government could equally put up a process that would allow the foreign carriers to partner with domestic airlines by way of code-share arrangement between them to fly their passengers to other destinations beyond their (foreign airlines’ points of entry).

He said that’s one of the quickest ways the domestic carriers can thrive and become more competitive, expressing dismay at how Nigeria’s traffic rights are being given away freely to foreign carriers. Foreign airlines once had code-share partnership with many Nigerian carriers, but their lack of schedule integrity has adversely affected the partnership.

The most recent codeshare partnership was between Emirates and Arik. The pact was signed last year, but it remains to be seen whether the agreement still subsist because of the latter’s uncertain operations to Dubai. Pinnick, however, decried the clamour for a national airline, saying that the idea was no longer fashionable. He added that the three strong national airlines in Africa – Kenya Airways, South African Airways with the exception of Ethiopian Airways, are not doing well. Ethiopain is Africa’s most profitable airline, same way SAA and Kenyan’s fortune have plummeted over time. Pinnick said: “I do not subscribe to the idea of national carrier.

Government should look at airlines that have clean record, not airlines that are very weak and fragmented. “We have airlines that have reputation of over 50 years, but that may not be enough. People are consolidating. To buy an aircraft is easy, but not what it takes to maintain them, pay aircraft leases, fuel, payment of salaries.

C-check alone is $500,000 every 18 months; all that is tough.” The MMA2 boss admitted that the nation has a lot of potentials to grow strong airlines, but he condemned the proliferation of aerodromes with just three of them that are viable. The three viable ones are those in Lagos, Abuja and Port-harcourt.

Experts have expressed disappointment with the state of the Port-Harcourt airport where activities are conducted under tents. He explained that Nigeria deserves two world class international airports, lamenting that lack of good facilities has made a mess of air travel with lack of efficient transfer of international passengers.