Airline Industry Sees Long-Term Rebound for Sector, Says IATA
PARIS: After flying into the financial turbulence of the COVID pandemic, the airline sector expects passenger traffic to take off despite concerns about the industry’s impact on climate change. In its latest look at trends for the sector, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it doesn’t expect world air traffic to resume to its pre-pandemic level before 2023.
But over 20 years, air traffic should almost double, from 4.5 billion passengers in 2019 to 8.5 billion in 2039. That is, however, a drop of one billion passengers from IATA’s pre-crisis forecast. Nevertheless that will be good news for aircraft manufacturers, who slowed down production during the crisis as airlines cancelled orders to stay financially afloat. Airbus has already announced it plans to step up the manufacturing cadence of its best-selling A320 single-aisle aircraft and should reach a record level already in 2023.
Boeing, for its part, forecasts that airlines will need 43,110 new aircraft through 2039, which will result in a near doubling of the global fleet. Asia alone will account for 40 percent of that demand. As with the September 11 attacks or the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, “the industry will prove resilient again,” Darren Hulst, vice president of marketing at Boeing, said last year.
Marc Ivaldi, research director at the Paris-based School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, noted that only one percent of the population currently uses air travel. “With the simple demographic rise and the fact that people become richer there will be rising demand for air travel and thus for aircraft,” he said. If the biggest aircraft fleets are currently in the United States and Europe, the biggest increases are expected in Asia and the Middle East, the consulting firm Oliver Wyman said in a recent study. Read More
Why Nigerian Airlines Can’t Benefit From Bilateral Air Service Agreements
Stakeholders have listed corruption, inconsistent policies and lack of capacity by the country’s airlines as some of the reasons Nigerian carriers are not benefitting from the numerous Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs) the nation signed with over 90 countries.
They also lamented that incompetence on the part of negotiating team was also responsible for the skewed BASA and challenged the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to stick to the regulation of the civil aviation of Nigeria in implementing BASA.
They further queried the cancellation of royalty payment by foreign airlines operating in the country by Princess Stella Oduah, a former Minister of Aviation, in 2012 as part of the challenges the country was battling with and queried the logic of the action.
Before the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Nigeria was said to be losing about $5 billion to repatriated funds annually and unserviced BASAs.
BASAs are founded on the principle of reciprocity. It is a deal that enables a country’s airlines to enjoy equal leverage, in terms of flight operations, in countries with which their home country have air agreement.
As at the last count, Nigeria has about 92 BASAs with several countries, but about 28 are being served with only seven reciprocities by Nigerian airlines, mostly within the West African region.
Only Air Peace out of nine scheduled carriers operates intercontinental flights.
Engr. Femi Adeniji, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), TAL Helicopters, said that the improper BASAs have led to the exploitation of Nigeria by foreign airlines. Read More
NCPWD Vows to Sue Airlines for Discriminating Against PLWDs
Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Persons With Disabilities (NCPWD), James David Lalu, has threatened legal action against discriminatory tendencies by airlines against persons living with disabilities (PLWDs).
He stated this while reacting to a recent conduct of Dana Air towards some persons with disabilities, adding that officials of Dana Air refused to board Mrs. Oguntoyose Gbemi because she was on a wheelchair.
In a statement issued yesterday, Head of Media and Publicity of the commission, Mbanefo John-Michael, said Lalu made the assertion in a recent interview with journalists in Abuja.
He lamented that previous administrations failed to give over 30 million persons with disabilities the required attention in Nigeria due to the huge gap between the government and the governed.
Lalu, therefore, urged the media and other stakeholders to partner with NCPWD to take persons with disabilities to their rightful place.
Insecurity Entices Investors to Airline Business
Many investors are joining the aviation industry by floating commercial airlines as sector experiences boom in spite of economic contraction, Daily Trust reports.
While some experts attributed the development to rising insecurity, which makes air travel the safest, others said the COVID-19 pandemic was also a contributory factor.
According to them, despite the attrition rate in the aviation sector because of teething problems, airliners in Nigeria are making brisk business in the last few years as they witness heavy traffic of customers.
Apart from people who have the means that always travel by air, middle-income earners are increasingly avoiding road travel because of insecurity.
In the North, for instance, they specifically cited the challenges of travelling from Abuja to Kaduna, Kano, Gusau, Kebbi and Sokoto in the North-West; and Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Yola and Jalingo in the North-East.
Our correspondents report that Boko Haram fighters, bandits and kidnappers have killed many people on the highway while hundreds of passengers lost their lives through road accidents and sectarian crises.
An aviation expert, Shuaibu Ajani, said apart from profit, those that have the means invest in airlines because of increasing demand for air travels.
“There are many corridors in the North-East for instance, because people don’t want to travel by road as a result of insecurity occasioned by Boko Haram,” he said. Read More
Source: Daily Trust Newspaper