Ethiopean Airlines: Opening Our Flanks Too Wide
By Ndubuisi Francis
Once again, combination of shock and utter consternation took the better part of many Nigerians early this week with the reported moves by Ethiopean Airlines to make Lagos its stop over point during its translantic flights to the United States.
The ailine may be capitalising on the absence of direct flights between Nigeria and the United States of America to launch its presence in the highly lucrative route.
The U.S-Nigeria route has since this year been bereft of direct flights. The most recent attempt was the World Airways/Ritetime Aviation partnership which came to an abrupt end early this year.
Since then, passengers from Nigeria to the United States have been working through the skin of their teeth as they have to travel to Europe first before making connecting flights to the United States.
Although one of America's carriers, Continental Airlines is presently making efforts to commence direct flights between both countries, Ethiopean Airlines is said to be exploring the possibilities of having a stop over at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos for its transatlantic flights to the United States.
The move, according to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was disclosed by a three-man team from Ethiopian Airlines which paid a courtesy call on the Managing Director/Chief Executive of the Authority, Engr. Mohammed Sani Baba at the corporate headquarters last Thursday.
The team made up of Ms Girma Shiferaw, Messrs Emeriti Tesfaye and Asmarc Askabe, it was disclosed, was in the country to explore the possibility of direct flight operations from Nigeria to the United States of America, originating from Ethiopia.
The FAAN boss who received the team was reported to have assured of the vast untapped potentials in the aviation sector in Nigeria, which, he said, is a natural regional hub in the West Africa Sub region.
Baba was said to have expressed gratitude to the Ethiopean Airlines for been a dependable ally over the years, pointing out that Nigerians have been making connections to the Far East through the airline.
He assured of the excellent facilities in place, adding that the runway at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos would soon be re-surfaced while other facilities comparable to the best in the world are available in the country.
The FAAN chief executive also spoke of the availability of a big air travel market in Nigeria with an annual passenger traffic in excess of seven million passngers.
It is however not clear under which arrangement the Ethiopean Airlines will be granted the stop over right since there is currently no such provision in the Bilateral Air Sevices Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and Ethiopia. Ethiopean Airlines currently flies into Nigeria thrice a week.
Only recently, the Federal Government granted the Fifth Freedom Right to Emirates Airlines which permits the carrier to fly Lagos-Accra-Dubai.
If Ethiopean Airlines succeed in making stop over flights in Lagos, the country would have opened its doors (or rather skies) yet wider than is already creating apprehension in the land.
The Aviation Minister, Mallam Isa Yuguda has somewhat made it a refrain when he disclosed at several fora that Nigeria loses over $2 billion to capital flight because of the absence of a national flag carrier.
Is it not an irony for a minister that parrots capital flight
also allow unfettered access to foreign airlines either through increased frequency, multiple entries and other freedoms. Does he not know that such airlines (whether Ethiopean Airlines, Asian carrier or European airlines) will not fail to repatriate their profits.
It is curious why Nigerian airlinbes, six of them were recently designated to some secondary routes while such lucrative routes like New York, London and Johannesburg were reserved. The warped argument to justify this was that the routes were reserved for the proposed national flag carrier. While these routes have been reserved, foreign carriers have been making an overkill, demanding for more frequency and carting away millions of dollars away from our shores.
Why can't our government set standards for the same Nigerian airlines that it has allowed to fly some regional and international routes to fly to such reserved routes instead of allowing the Eurpoean carriers to asking for and getting more frequencies even when they can't even meet demand? Is it better for Ethiopean Airlines to come under the guise of stop over in Lagos than allowing our own carriers to fly direct to the United States once they meet the requirements? Why has our government become so insensitive to national interest that anything goes? Are government officials allowing some of these freedoms out of nothing or are they being blindfolded by inordinate pecuniary lust?
If the government is not aware, the airlines designated to such secondary routes like Amsterdam and Madrid, among others, are destined to fail because as long as they don't go direct to London and New York, European carriers will ensure that charges paid to connect their (Nigerian airlines' passengers)to their final destinations will be prohibitive to discourage our airlines from flying.
Bellview Airlines tried the Amsterdam route some years back and had an unsavoury tale to tell. The European airlines charged the airline so much to for the connection flights carry its passngers from Amsterdam to London and New York such that the airline had to voluntarily stop the operation which was economically unviable.
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