In the last few days, the Nigerian news space was awash with accolades to President Bola Tinubu on his visit to UAE and the reported achievements as scripted by Ajuri Ngilale that flights by the two carriers are resuming immediately and others.
However, whereas checks at the websites of both airlines, Etihad and Emirates, clearly show nothing in the affirmation to the presidential claims in resuming flights, a leading aviation expert, Mr. Amos Akpan in an interview said “It is important to have Nigeria’s interest in that presidential understanding so that we will not be in the losing side after all.
According to him, “the Nigerian aviation industry can only be cautious at this point until they see the document and when the document comes out we will know what is the need for us and be able to contribute but the least we expect is that we should be consulted before this document is finalized so that our input representing the interest of our own industrial sector, our home and our people is carried along.
“Don’t forget the people of United Arab Emirates don’t do these things without an overall agenda in their system. Emirates airlines, Ethiad airlines, are not designed as a project just because they have to come to Lagos and go back, they are designed as a project that contributes to the GDP of the national economy of UAE. Though, we also take that into consideration when our people are going for this kind of negotiations.
Akpan further averred that “First and foremost I want us to understand that we are not equitable in terms of going for this negotiations because we don’t have a hub airport and Dubai is a hub airport, so that in itself is a minus in going for this kind of negotiations because the frequency for which they will take is not because people are going to Dubai as destinations this must be understood, they are going to Dubai as transit, if you carry hypothetically 100 passengers on an air craft into Dubai it’s expected that 70 of those passengers are transiting to India, China from Dubai they are joining adjoining flight continuing flight to other various routes and 30 of them that will be destination Dubai, that very small number.
“So that is the entire plan they are going for. We don’t have that kind of setup in Nigeria where Air Peace will come from Dubai or anywhere else to come and empty passengers who are transiting and going to other stations they are just coming as destination Nigeria. So they have that in their advantage so when we are going we note that and then when we want to discuss we say okay.
The basics are that reciprocity will be the first thing we put on the table the Dubai airport is not charger airport. If you are designating Emirates to Lagos Airports 7frequencies a week the least you can give is five frequencies a week it should be 7 frequencies also to airpeace. It is left for air peace to do the 7 frequencies, only should be given to air peace because that is our own designated area on that route and that carries our flag so that’s what should be 7 for 7 , 5 for 5, and so on and its left for the carrier that has been so designated to be able to meet up like this.
That’s what should be on the document other issues involved are the auxiliary services the aviation is not just flying an aircraft. There’s a handling companies; there’s a catering companies; There’s a fueling companies, there’s a travel agencies, and so on.
“There’s a ICT companies that gives us software, how are these parts of the team that supplies services.
“Their auxiliary services that are meant for the growth of the industry, is Etihad and Emirates patronizing this system as they should?
That should be looked into not just come here and have a contract staff and all that and then when we get there we are forced to have some labour issues.
So we must recruit, their guidelines, so these guidelines must be taken into consideration during negotiations so our input is simple; we must gain. That’s the summary of we stakeholders’ inputs.
