Business
Lufthansa Commends Stability Of Aviation Business In Nigeria
The Vice President, Sales and Services Southeast Europe, Africa, Middle East/Pakistan, Lufthansa German Airlines, Mr Carsten Schaeffer, has commended the stability of aviation business in Nigeria over the last 50 years.
Schaeffer made this commendation during a five-day press tour of the Lufthansa facility in Frankfurt and Berlin, Germany.
He said that the stability of aviation industry in Nigeria has brought a significant growth in the airline business.
“It takes coordination approach to have a good business in the aviation sector, particularly in Africa. Nigeria has been stable and reliable in the growth of aviation business in Africa.
“It is this system of coordination approach that makes most of the gulf airlines in the Arab world to continue to grow in the business.
“Most of the challenges faced by airlines around the world, including Nigeria, are the problems of relationship among themselves, connectivity to other parts of the world and continuity in the business,” he said.
According to him, other problems experienced in the aviation sector are its capital intensive nature, and low profit margin.
Schaeffer noted that Lufthansa was already encouraging partnership and investing into the African aviation sector, particularly Nigeria.
He said that Nigeria has the highest market demand in the continent, and that Lufthansa was prepared to partner in developing air traffic in the country.
The airlines’ vice-president explained that the development of airport infrastructure in Nigeria has to keep in pace with the growth of the country.
“Nigeria is a big decentralised country which needs a big infrastructure to grow. It is not easy to build or develop an airport in such a country like Nigeria.
“It is a challenge to everybody, not the government alone to develop such big infrastructure, because land may be a major impediment to the expansion of the infrastructure,” he said.
He said that the African continent might be an important place to partner with investors in developing the use of Biofuel energy to power aircraft.
“The price of aviation fuel will not really go down, it is a normal situation and that is why we are looking at all means to find an alternative to oil and gas,” he said.
He urged the Nigerian government to look into the establishment of a national carrier that would serve the domestic routes competitively.