An Aviation Consultant,
Mr. Chris Aligbe has said that the Nigeria aviation sector is being exploited by foreign carriers due to government unfavourable policies in the bilateral Air Space Agreement (BASA).
Mr. Aligbe who made this observation in a chat with Aviation correspondents recently, said the failure of domestic airlines to run successful operations and the high cost of aviation fuel was responsible for the scenario.
Mr. Aligbe, an Aviation Consultant and Chief Executive Officer of Belujane Konsult Limited, said Nigeria had remained in the old regime of Bilateral Air Space Agreement (BASA), noting that the old regime BASA did not separate slot from frequency.
He explained that when European countries started experiencing congestion at their airports, they began the separation of frequencies from slots allocation and introduced the new regime which became option one, International Civil Aviation Organisation accepted.
The Aviation expert disclosed that the BASA between Britain and Nigeria did not mention how slots could be acquired, noting that the regime presently operated by Britain requires that slots must be specifically mentioned and indicate how airlines will acquire slots.
“We need to look at our BASA and bring it up to the current regime or even if we don’t look at it, we should start a reciprocal thing because what has happened is that many airports have inadequacies”, he said.
According to him, “we should go ahead and create a slot allocation system and move away from BASA royalties because BASA royalties is a disappearing phenomenon that will become anachronistic in many places and they tell us it is commercial, they have transferred earning from BASA to slots”.
Mr. Aligbe identified lack of competence in airline management as a major hindrance in Nigeria, adding that pricing which does not follow normal pattern of pricing in the airline industry has hampered growth and the absence of major marketing directorate.
On high fares, he said increase in the price of Aviation fuel and the high charges by the agencies on airlines are contributory factors and except government intervenes, the situation will continue to be experienced.
“The agencies are depending on aeronautical revenue today, aeronautical revenue in the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is about 76 per cent and non-aeronautical revenue is about 22 to 24 per cent whereas reverse is the case in other countries”, Aligbe declared.