Aviation stakeholders and experts have called for continued investment in infrastructure to sustain the growing contribution of the sector to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The transport industry contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product in the second quarter of 2021 is less than its contribution in the first quarter, but aviation stakeholders said the aviation sub-sector made greater contribution than in the previous years and attributed the development to improved infrastructure and growing passenger traffic.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated in its latest report that GDP from transport in Nigeria decreased in the second quarter of 2021 as against its contribution in the first quarter of 2021.
In September last year, the NBS had disclosed in its Gross Domestic Product report that air transport contracted by 57.38 per cent in Q2 2020 from 5.68 per cent in Q1 2020 and 12.31 per cent in Q2 2019.
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) Captain Fola Akinkuotu, quoting the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika in a chat with THISDAY said the aviation industry is currently contributing more to GDP than in the past.
Akinkuotu noted that the sector has done so well so far, despite the devastating impact of Covid-19.
He said that although the overall contribution of the transport industry decreased but aviation singularly contributed more because there has been progressive improvement in the air transport sector.
“Obviously there has been tremendous growth. A mere, look around and you see how many ILS (instrument landing systems) we have installed at the airports. We have even installed the advanced Category 3 ILS at Abuja and Lagos airports and we have three additional ones that are coming this year. The cost of ILS category 3 is not chicken change. It is huge.
“The cost of radio communication system installed in NAMA is a great investment. The federal government has spent billion of naira. He said contrary to observations that air transport was bigger in the past because there were more airlines; there are more aircraft capacity currently, although there are fewer airlines, “he said.
“We are growing. Don’t let us count the airlines, but count the aircraft. Because you can have one major airline and have 100 airplanes, would you say we have not grown? You cannot say we have not grown. Pre-COVID-19, there was a time Arik Air had about over 30 airplanes. When Nigeria Airways was king, it had just about 30 airplanes too. So here you have one airline having over 30 airplanes, which is equal to what Nigeria Airways had. At that same time you have Aero Contractors, Chanchangi, Azman Air, Medview Airlines. But then when some of these airlines dropped out of the picture, Air Peace came and Air Peace pre-COVID had over 30 airplanes.
“The available aircraft have increased, so there is growth and available figures, even as quoted many times by the Minister, shows that there is increase in what aviation is making to the GDP. A lot of people are traveling by air now because they feel safer flying it and they see the advantage of flying. So, the question or the issue you are trying to raise is how come when we had 20 airlines we didn’t have higher number of aircraft, but we have 16 airlines but the number of aircraft and available seats has increased,” he said.
The Managing Director of NAMA said the federal government has done so much to revamp facilities in the aviation industry, recalling that since 2017 government has replaced at least seven instrument landing systems (ILS).
“In addition to the ones that existed we brought in new ones and we really went one step further in putting ILS category 3 in two airports – Abuja and Lagos. And we are bringing in another three ILSs category 3s into the system to replace the existing category 2s. A brand new ILS category 3 in Abuja, new ILS in Kano, new ILS in Kaduna, new ILS in Benin, new ILS in Enugu. And in terms of radio, we have brought in radios into Lagos, Kano; into many, many stations. And presently we are making efforts to complete the AIS (Aeronautical Information Service) and the VSAT programme across the country,” Akinkuotu added.
