Local airlines lose N2bn to bad weather
Domestic airline operators are groaning over the loss of about N2 billion in just three days last week due to cancelled flights occasioned by bad weather.
A source close to one of the major airlines, who did want his name mentioned, told our correspondent that the inclement weather disrupted flights to most Northern and South-South airports for several days last week.
At least, a hundred flights were cancelled nationwide during the period, with an average ticket going for about N20,000 per passenger.
Most of the airlines operate Boeing 737 aircraft with about 150 sitting capacities for both business and economy classes.
The airlines are also decrying the capacity of the navigational equipment installed at all the airports in the country, alleging that they have become ineffective in the present weather condition.
Our correspondent gathered that flights to Port Harcourt, Uyo, Benin and Asaba in the South-South were mostly affected, while flights to Kano, Abuja, Ilorin, Kaduna, Bauchi and Sokoto were also disrupted.
Most of the domestic airlines such as Arik, Med-View, Azman, Aero, FirstNation and others were affected by the adverse weather condition as they had to delay or cancel flights out of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, MMA, Ikeja, Lagos.
For instance, early morning flight of Arik Air to Abuja was cancelled last week, while Med-View Airline also cancelled its flights to Port Harcourt, among many others.
Aviation expert, Mr. Sheri Kyari, in an interview with our correspondent charged the government through the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, to improve the installed facilities in most of the airports to allow airlines operate successfully in any weather condition.
Kyari called for improvement of the facilities to Category Three-C, which allows aircraft to land in zero visibility, just like their counterparts in Europe and America.
“With Category Three- C, it means we can land in zero visibility. I pray that NAMA can look at that as their own project and experiment with Abuja, like I said, which has a lot of obstacles around the airport.
“The other three airports have plain surrounding. Even Category Three- A can be okay for some of those airports where you can reduce visibility to 200 metres.
“The weather for Europe and America are not like the type of weather we have here. They have fog that is thicker than our dust haze and they land. Their own is stormy weather that is likely to affect an aircraft when it’s coming to land.
“They already have facilities that monitor weather around the airports like the wind shear and all that.
“These are things there is nothing you can do about it. You have to stop airlines from coming to land when there are wind shear, heavy storms, hurricane and all that. Those are things that are definitely beyond airlines’ control,” he said.
Source:National Mirror
A source close to one of the major airlines, who did want his name mentioned, told our correspondent that the inclement weather disrupted flights to most Northern and South-South airports for several days last week.
At least, a hundred flights were cancelled nationwide during the period, with an average ticket going for about N20,000 per passenger.
Most of the airlines operate Boeing 737 aircraft with about 150 sitting capacities for both business and economy classes.
The airlines are also decrying the capacity of the navigational equipment installed at all the airports in the country, alleging that they have become ineffective in the present weather condition.
Our correspondent gathered that flights to Port Harcourt, Uyo, Benin and Asaba in the South-South were mostly affected, while flights to Kano, Abuja, Ilorin, Kaduna, Bauchi and Sokoto were also disrupted.
Most of the domestic airlines such as Arik, Med-View, Azman, Aero, FirstNation and others were affected by the adverse weather condition as they had to delay or cancel flights out of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, MMA, Ikeja, Lagos.
For instance, early morning flight of Arik Air to Abuja was cancelled last week, while Med-View Airline also cancelled its flights to Port Harcourt, among many others.
Aviation expert, Mr. Sheri Kyari, in an interview with our correspondent charged the government through the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, to improve the installed facilities in most of the airports to allow airlines operate successfully in any weather condition.
Kyari called for improvement of the facilities to Category Three-C, which allows aircraft to land in zero visibility, just like their counterparts in Europe and America.
“With Category Three- C, it means we can land in zero visibility. I pray that NAMA can look at that as their own project and experiment with Abuja, like I said, which has a lot of obstacles around the airport.
“The other three airports have plain surrounding. Even Category Three- A can be okay for some of those airports where you can reduce visibility to 200 metres.
“The weather for Europe and America are not like the type of weather we have here. They have fog that is thicker than our dust haze and they land. Their own is stormy weather that is likely to affect an aircraft when it’s coming to land.
“They already have facilities that monitor weather around the airports like the wind shear and all that.
“These are things there is nothing you can do about it. You have to stop airlines from coming to land when there are wind shear, heavy storms, hurricane and all that. Those are things that are definitely beyond airlines’ control,” he said.
Source:National Mirror
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