The International Air Transport Organisation (IATA) has raised the alarm that Nigerian government are stiffing airline operations with heavy and sundry taxes and charges.
Vice president, IATA, Africa and Middle East, Kamil Al Alwadi, while speaking at the 7th Aviation Africa summit and exhibition on Wednesday in Abuja, further lamented the stunted growth in the region, especially Nigeria.
He called on Nigerian government to create a conducive environment for airlines to thrive.
He said research shows that Nigeria ranks highest in airport charges in Africa, saying Abuja airport is the most expensive airport in Africa, closely followed by Lagos airport.
He said Africa has put itself in a a place where it cannot help its own, expensive fuel, excessive charges, leasing and insurance through the roof, the airlines need to be financially viable too.
He said the airlines contribute to the country’s GDP but Nigeria needs to decide what to do for them to survive.
According to him, carriers based in Africa are expected to generate a moderate combined loss of around USD 484 million in 2023 because the continent remains a difficult market in which to operate an airline, with economic, infrastructure and connectivity challenges impacting the industry performance.
“However, despite the challenges, the industry continues to move towards profitability following the COVID disruption and could be in the black as soon as next year. Underpinning this is the robust demand for air travel. As we saw in the second quarter of 2023 – and for two consecutive quarters – African carriers had one of the world’s highest annual passenger traffic growth rates, second only to Asia Pacific.
“With total traffic up 38.9% compared to the same quarter in 2022, African carriers growth outperformed the industry-wide average for total and international traffic, even though the region has not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Q2 2023 RPKs were 9.2% below the same quarter in 2019.
