…As cancelled flights hit 348, delayed rise to 19,323 in 6 months
Leading indigenous investor in aviation and chairman of Air Peace Limited, Mr. Allen Onyema has revealed the core course of flights delays and cancellations at Nigerian airports.
In an interview monitored on local TV station in Lagos, he decried the operation and use of only one security scanner in major airports in Nigeria, saying the scenario leaves much to be desired.
According to him, lack of critical aviation infrastructure and a situation where there is only one functional scanner and everybody is expected to queue to pass through remain a big minus.
He said no matter the number of flights waiting to be boarded, the passage of everybody on one scanner causes hiccup and operational shock that usually terminate in delayed flights and cancellations.
Already, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has disclosed that airlines cancelled 348 flights and suffered no less than 19,323 delayed flights in the last six months.
While the cancelled flights affected 253 domestic and 95 international flights, NCAA disclosed that “Out of the delayed flights, 16,880 were domestic while international airlines delayed 2,443 flights”.
Though other industry experts argue that over 50 per cent of the flights operated within the period were delayed majorly due to force majeure linked to bad weather, the Director General of NCAA, Capt. Mukhtar Usman, stressed that the data of flight operations being released by the agency are harmonized figures, saying there is a committee on statistics domiciled in the Ministry of Transportation which involves all agencies of aviation and those outside the industry.
