Aviation agencies have continued to rue their losses over the cessation of activities at the Kaduna Airport for the past three months when it was attacked.
Following the attack on the airport in March, when a official of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) was killed, airlines have suspended operations there.
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Three airlines were flying to the airport—Azman Air, Air Peace and Arik Air.
Azman Air only returned to the airport on May 23 and has remained the only airline operating a four week flight in a week.
Daily Trust learnt that Air Peace had communicated to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to resume this week but had not done so due to what a source called, “operational reasons.”
Before the security breach the airport was recording up to 250 passengers daily. But at the moment, it hardly records 500 passengers in a week, according to a source.
Daily Trust gathered that FAAN charges N2000 on each passenger as passenger service charge (PSC) which means that the authority would be losing about N500,000 daily from PSC alone. This translates to about N100 million monthly.
This is in addition to the landing charges that the authority collects on each aircraft that lands at the airport.
Similarly, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) which collects five per cent ticket sale charge on each passenger is also losing millions of naira weekly as a result of the inactivity at the airport.
Similarly, NAMA is also not left out in the loss which has been described as huge.
Several private jets that should have landed at the civilian airport have made the Nigeria Air Force Base at Mando, Igabi LGA of the state, their go-to landing area.
But the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) may have been cashing in on flight activities by private jet operators.
In May, top presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), who arrived Kaduna State to canvass for support from delegates, landed at the Air Force base instead of the civilian airport. This is as a Daily Trust investigation revealed that for return trips, civilian airports usually charge about 3,000 dollars per hour as landing and parking charges. The charges however, usually start about three hours after landing.
“During that period, FAAN lost the entire revenue from those private jets because they were not landing at the civilian airport and we have no access to the military airport,” a FAAN official told Daily Trust.
Sources from the Nigerian Air Force in Kaduna also explained that though several private jets have landed at the military airport, the jets received clearance from the NAF headquarters in Abuja. They claimed that the Air Force base was only given signal to expect certain aircraft. “Most of the time, we don’t even know who the personalities are. We are only given signal from the headquarters that a plane will be landing,” the source said.
Attempts to reach the NAF Command Public Relations Officer, Group Captain Ibrahim Bukar, proved abortive as he did not respond to calls to his lines.
Speaking with our correspondent, the Kaduna Airport Manager, Mrs Amina Salami, said while she could not provide the estimated losses to the authority, it was definitely losing a huge amount of money.
She said, “When all the airlines were operating, we had the PSC, landing and parking. But these are not there again. I will just say it is a huge loss to FAAN. I will not be able to say the exact amount.
“Of course without business you will not be generating revenue. It is a loss to FAAN as you said. Except we have more activities which we don’t have now, we can’t generate anything.”
Businesses also lament lack of patronage
A porter at the Kaduna International Airport, Charles A. Charles, estimated that porters might have lost up to N500,000 since the March 26 incident saying many top government officials are still reluctant to fly through the airport.
Charles, who has worked at the airport for the past 15 years, said he used to get a lot of tips from prominent Nigerians and top government officials who expressed satisfaction with his services.
“If we have security agents patrolling the airport and the road leading to the airport, we will be happy because our job is directly linked to the drivers who bring passengers to the airport. If there are no passengers, we will have no work to do,” he said.
A food vendor at the airport, Rashida Moshood, said her food business has suffered from the temporary lock down at the airport but has been making little sales since Azman airline resumed service.
Rashida explained that she used to make profit from the sales of six measures of rice daily, but can now barely sell a few cups due to low patronage.
She said before Azman Air returned its services to the airport, she had returned home since there were no passengers at the airport.
“We hope that traffic returns to the airport soon. The insecurity is the problem and we hope that when government increases security to the airport and airlift for the pilgrimage commences, we will see a lot of customers,” she said.
Only FAAN can collect revenue – Experts
A former NAMA manager at the Kaduna International Airport, Mr. Gaven Sindep, said the only legal agency authorised to collect landing and parking fees by the NCAA is FAAN. He, however, said since the incident at the airport, FAAN will automatically lose money while billions of naira worth of equipment would be left unused.
“It becomes illegal for anybody including the Nigerian Airforce to collect revenue because to the best of my knowledge, the only agency certified by civil aviation to collect landing and parking is FAAN. Except of course if there is an agreement between the Nigerian Airforce and the airport authorities and that is not to my knowledge,” he said.
He said the aviation industry is highly regulated by the vInternational Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) “even though when it comes to revenue, there is some flexibility, but the question is, are the Air Force personnel trained on how to calculate the load and weigh?”
Experts call for increased security
Sindep also called for increased security response at the Kaduna International Airport to ensure that it is safe for staff and passengers.
According to him, unless the security situation is checked, the non-utilization of the airport will not only affect revenue collection but in the long run affect jobs.
Daily Trust reports that in 2017, the federal government closed the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) in Abuja for six week and transferred flight operations to the Kaduna International Airport in order to fix the runway at NAIA.
“During that time, the government upgraded the Kaduna International Airport. The Kaduna State government has also upgraded the VIP lounge of the airport, so they cannot afford to let insecurity hinder activities at the airport; they cannot allow the equipment to rot away,” Sindep said.
While harping on the need for security at the airport, another aviation expert, Captain Ado Sanusi, said it is only in Nigeria that buildings and small settlements are allowed within airport parameters. He said airport areas around the world are strictly prohibited and therefore farmlands should not be sited around airports.
“That has to be discouraged completely and especially now that we have security challenges. We should make it very clear to communities that if you come close to the airport, you might be killed; it is not some place where children or people should go around or be looking at the airfield. If somebody wants to watch the air planes, there should be an air view port that they can have access to,” he said.
However, while assuring of government’s efforts to provide security to the airport, Kaduna State Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said the state government was in discussions with security agencies to beef up security around the airport, before airlift for this year’s Hajj exercise.
Aruwan assured during an event organised by the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN) that intending pilgrims will be airlifted from the Kaduna International airport.
From Lami Sadiq, Kaduna & Abdullateef Aliyu, Lagos
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