The President of TopBrass Aviation, Roland Iyayi, has expressed concerns that many of the 122 airports and airstrips in the country have hindered the growth of tourism due to their inactivity.
Nigeria currently houses 31 airports and 91 airstrips, which are not in use.
Iyayi, while speaking at the Aviation Safety Round Table summit recently, suggested that airstrips and airports could serve the domestic market by using smaller aircraft, like 19-seater air shuttles, to connect various locations with airstrips. This would enhance commerce and tourism.
He said, “You cannot fly a B737 into an airstrip that is 500 metres long. Our tourism industry is dead, non-existent. But we do have a lot of tourist sites in the country. Kenya and most East African countries thrive on tourism. They do not have those numbers to support that industry as well as we do.
“Assuming we had aeroplanes structured for 19 seats, 30 seats that can go into markets where you do not have numbers to support the B737s, the operating economics of such types would make any airline operating in the niche market more viable.
“But we are not doing that. We are not looking at those little bits. Except, of course, we have a complete ecosystem that will take cognisance of the different segments of our market. It would be almost impossible to thrive in this system.”
The Nigerian aviation industry, he reiterated, had the opportunity for tremendous growth, but regretted that the growth element of it must be supported deliberately, and intentionally by government policy.
He noted that the policy must be tailored to the needs of the country, hinting that without that, Nigeria would end up a fragmented market just like the airlines with the same airlines coming into the same market with the same size of aircraft Nigeria and operating in a fragmented market.
“Until we remove those shackles, we are not going to grow this industry. FAAN itself can make more money. Today, if FAAN were allowed to commercialise its operation in such a way that it would take cognisance of what it has and can use it well. If you want to do a low-cost service today, you can go to FAAN.
“The MD of FAAN should be able to make the business decisions to decide what is best for FAAN. But unfortunately, because of the structure of our governance and the fact that we embrace mediocrity in Nigeria, unfortunately. If we do not allow talents to thrive in our airline, we will not do the right things,” he averred.
According to Iyayi, the infrastructure gap in the industry is huge, noting that if the government decides to spend $500m annually over the next 10 years, it will not address the infrastructure gap.
