Aero Contractors opens Bauchi, Maiduguri Routes
Ahead of summer travels and imminent boom in international traffic, airlines have warned that chaotic scenes await passengers at airports over COVID-19 travel protocols.
The airlines said compliance with mandatory tests and vaccine certificates at departure and arrival terminals may cost passengers between three to eight hours of delay, “which will be discouraging for customers and an industry in recovery phase”.
In a related development, Aero Contractors airline has disclosed plans to reopen Bauchi and Maiduguri operations as part of its route expansion programme. Deploying its Boeing 737-400 aircraft just back from C-checks, the airline will open Abuja-Bauchi route tomorrow, and subsequently follow with the Maiduguri operations.
Foreign carriers, under the aegis of International Air Transport Association (IATA), said the prior warning avails an opportunity for Nigerian government, among others, to deploy automated screening facilities to manage travel health credentials and other COVID-19 measures to achieve pre-COVID-19 passenger facilitation time.
At pre-COVID-19 levels, passengers, spend an average of 1.5 hours in travel processes for every journey, that is, check-in, security, border control, customs, and baggage claim.
Current data indicate that airport processing times have ballooned to 3.0 hours during peak time with travel volumes at only about 30 per cent of pre-COVID-19 levels. The greatest increases are at check-in and border control – emigration and immigration – where travel health credentials are being checked mainly as paper documents.
Modeling suggests that without process improvements, the time spent in airport processes could reach 5.5 hours per trip at 75 per cent pre-COVID-19 traffic levels, and 8.0 hours per trip at 100 per cent pre-COVID-19 traffic levels.
IATA’s Director General, Willie Walsh, yesterday, said without an automated solution for COVID-19 checks, significant airport disruptions remain imminent.
“Already, average passenger processing and waiting times have doubled from what they were pre-crisis during peak time—reaching an unacceptable three hours. And that is with many airports deploying pre-crisis level staffing for a small fraction of pre-crisis volumes. Nobody will tolerate waiting hours at check-in or for border formalities.
“We must automate the checking of vaccine and test certificates before traffic ramps up. The technical solutions exist. But governments must agree digital certificate standards and align processes to accept them. And they must act fast,” Walsh said.
Over the past two decades, air travel has been reinvented to put passengers in control of their journeys through self-service processes. This enables travellers to arrive at the airport essentially “ready to fly”. Read more