How profitable are Nigeria’s bilateral air service agreements?

How effective and profitable to the Nigerian economy, and to domestic airlines, are the several Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs) the country has entered into with other countries? This has remained a subject of debate among experts and stakeholders in the aviation sector over time.

BASA, founded on the principle of reciprocity, 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 has an air agreement.
Muhtar Shaibu Usman, director-general, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), said at a press conference in January 2017 that Nigeria had executed BASAs with 90 countries as at December 2016, though only about 39 of the agreements were active as of then.

No doubt, BASAs promote international air link between countries, which in turn supports and enables movement of persons, cargo, trade and tourism. If competitively executed, BASAs could improve the economic and operational viability of Nigeria’s designated international airports by creating the enabling environment for international airlines operating in the country to use them.

But given that domestic airlines do not have the capacity to reciprocate the flight frequencies into other countries, experts say these airlines, and Nigeria, stand to lose out in revenue and flight frequencies. In other words, with little or no reciprocity from any of the nation’s carriers, foreign airlines’ flight frequencies into and out of Nigeria would increase at the expense of the local airlines.

There are 22 international airlines and eight domestic airlines with scheduled flights operating in Nigeria. Ethiopian Airlines currently flies to four destinations in the country from its base in Addis Ababa. The East African carrier operates scheduled flights to Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, and, recently, Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, with over 21 frequencies weekly.

Apart from Ethiopian Airlines, other foreign airlines like British Airways, Etihad, Air France/KLM, Egypt Air, Emirates and, lately, South African Airways, among others have joined the carriers that operate multiple entries into Nigeria regularly.

Meanwhile, only two domestic airlines, Air Peace and Medview, operate long haul flights. Medview plies Ghana, Saudi Arabia, London, Dubai and Francophone countries. On the other hand, Air Peace only goes to Ghana.

IFEOMA OKEKE

The writer can be reached via ifeco24@gmail.com or +2347030791726