Nigeria’s hinterlands benefit from airlines’ expansion drive

Nigeria’s hinterlands, much of which  were long regarded as ‘unviable’ in terms of air travel services, are recently being opened up by domestic airlines in their quest to compete more creatively by venturing off the beaten path.

 

In the past, local airlines had structured scheduled flights to unpopular hinterland destinations, using medium-sized aircraft, and consistently failed to get viable payloads.

This time, the private domestic carriers are resorting to smaller short hop aircraft, many of them turboprop (propeller driven) and are doing better in terms of savings on fuel, filling up seats and margin enhancement, although they say its still not a tea party.

Previuosly neglected cities such as Ibadan, Ilorin, Dutse and Akure, among others, are already benefiting from the services of the airlines.

Before now, most commercial airlines crowded the more lucrative routes such as Lagos- Abuja, Lagos-Kano, Lagos Portharcourt, Lagos-Asaba, Lagos-Owerri, Lagos-Kaduna and Lagos-Yola, tagging the smaller cities as unviable.

Lagos tends to feature prominently in the reckoning becuase it is Nigeria’s commerial capital and is home to about 20 million people, which is over ten percent of the country’s population.

Courtesy of Overland Airways, which started the revolution of connecting the smaller cities to the bigger ones with its small hop Beechraft and ATR aircraft, other airlines have now followed suit as the airports in those cities have come alive.

For instance, Overland Airways currently operates a fleet of Beechcraft 1900D, ATR 42-320 and ATR 72 aircraft operating non-scheduled and scheduled flights to Ilorin, Dutse, Akure, Ibadan and others in Nigeria.

Arik Air soon followed suit with operations to Ilorin, Ibadan and Gombe, opening up the routes to businessmen who used to travel by road to places like Kaduna, Abuja to catch flights to their business destinations.

Analysts are of the opinion that all Nigerian cities are viable as long as airlines plan properly.

They say one of the ways they can reduce cost structures, eliminate inefficiencies and increase margins, is to venture into new routes where there are only a few operators with the right equipment.

“I can tell you that one of the reasons domestic airlines fail is lack of proper route planning and solid airline business plans. Over the years, they refuse to put the right pegs in the right holes.

“Rather than use smaller aircraft on shorter routes, they waste resources and use the B737 on almost all the routes in Nigeria.

“That is why Overland has continued to stay because the owner is a pilot who understands route planning and management, while most airlines prefer to go to Abuja, Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Kaduna, sometimes with 45 percent load factor because it is saturated, Overland and others who have seen the economic prospects of exploring the small cities, go with over 70 percent with small aircraft because politicians and business men will always use them”, Bala Muhammed,  a travel analyst said.

Muhammed further observed that there is a need for shift capacity to take advantage of routes and markets to counter continuing pressure on yields.

“When you look at all these prospects, there is need for some kind of expansion. And looking at the four airports – Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt – they are the hubs in Nigeria. “However, with increased influx of foreign airlines too and with the opportunity of landing in one or two airports, there could be an upsurge of passengers.

“Also, if the airlines want to optimise  routes, they highlight the beauty and tourism potentials of those cities on their websites.

“For instance, Akure boasts of Idanre hills, Ibadan and its environs are homes to the popular International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Botanical Gardens, Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove; Ilorin boast of the big Central Mosque and Kwara Farms while Bebi has Obudu Mountain Resort, Nigeria’s only cable car, honey farm and dairy ranch, among others.

Sade Williams