FOREIGN AIRLINES REPATRIATED N158BN IN 2012

Foreign airlines flying into Nigerian airports earned at least N158bn from ticket sales in the country last year. Figures obtained by National Mirror indicated that this was a slight improvement from the N156bn earned by the carriers in previous year.

The ticket sales figures for indigenous carriers in the same period were not immediately available but Arik Air made N4.3bn and Aero Airline, N441.4m in 2011. National Mirror gathered that British Airways, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Ethiopia Airline, Delta Airlines, Emirates and Air France/KLM led the pack among the foreign carriers in ticket sales. However, for the past 48 months, British Airways has continued to improve its revenue generation from the country with N33.5bn from tickets sold in 2012 while it earned N31.7bn in 2011. Following BA is the United Arab Emirates, which sold at least N22.4bn tickets in Nigeria in 2012, but earned N30.5bn in the previous year.

The airline’s market share dropped to 14.2 per cent in 2012 when compared to 2011. Besides, another carrier that joined the Nigerian aviation industry in 2012 from Dubai, Etihad Airline, earned N2.5bn in the same period while Qatar Airways made N8.2bn in the Nigerian market. Air France, according to the report, earned N13.9bn; Lufthansa, N12.1bn and Virgin Atlantic, N11.4bn in the year under review.

The carriers made N11.3bn, N12.9bn and N11.7bn respectively in 2011. Turkish Airlines recorded over 100 per cent increase in ticket sales between the years under review. The airline sold N3.6bn tickets in 2012, an increase from N1.7bn in 2011.

On the downward trend is Iberia Airlines, which earning fell to N629m in 2012 compared to N1bn the previous year. Also, Emirates’ sales fell by 26 per cent; Alitalia, 19 per cent; Kenya Airways, 12 per cent; KLM and Royal Air Maroc went down by eight per cent each. The Assistant Secretary- General of the Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, Alhaji Mohammed Tukur, said that it would be difficult for the Nigerian carriers to compete with the foreign airlines, stressing that they lacked the capacity to do so.

Tukur said that the indigenous airlines had found it difficult over the years to form an alliance with the foreign carriers, even on the West Coast. At present, only Aero and Arik airlines are flying the West Coast routes. On the excuse from some stakeholders that the multiple entries given foreign carriers were responsible for their huge earnings in the country, Tukur insisted that the carriers were entitled to them, “in as much as it is spelt out in the agreements Nigeria had with them.”

At present, no fewer than six foreign carriers enjoy multiple entries into Nigeria. For instance, Emirates, Air France/KLM, Lufthansa, Ethiopian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Kenya Airways all fly into different airports in the country. Tukur, however, decried a situation where Nigeria lacked the capacity to reciprocate some of these agreements “as the country does not have capable carriers and support from the government to compete with the foreign operators.”

He recalled that some indigenous carriers were hitherto flying into Dubai, but had to close the route due to massive competition from Emirates Airlines. Emirates enjoys huge support from the United Arab Emirates, UAE, government, most importantly in the price of aviation fuel. Tukur, therefore, challenged the Ministry of Aviation and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, to encourage more airlines into the sector, saying that by so doing, more Nigerian carriers would be able to compete effectively even on the foreign routes. He said: “For us to grow and compete effectively, we need to support our carriers and even put more investments into the subsector than what we are presently doing.

“But unfortunately, there are moves to destroy the sector even by some people in government. “There are plans to sabotage investments of some investors in the industry, which will not augur well for our industry. “There should be no interference in the running of the NCAA as some people are bent on doing. For instance, British Airways partners with Iberia and American Airlines, which has further boosted their performance in all the countries they fly into.

“A situation whereby somebody somewhere wants to kill an airline because of an accident will never take the sector forward. Even if a foreign investor had wanted to collaborate with a local investor to form an airline, such a person will be sceptical because of our antecedents.”

Source: National Mirror