Air travel in Nigeria is beset by delays caused by many factors, which include weather, breakdown of aircraft, poor airport facilities and poor scheduling.
Poor scheduling is problem of airlines, which can be averted with efficient schedule arrangement and maintenance.
In Nigeria there is also poor aircraft utilisation because the system and infrastructure guarantee limited period of time in a day to fly. Airlines can fly till midnight from Abuja to Lagos, but they cannot fly to many other airports because either those airports do not have airfield lighting or there is insecurity.
So even if it is possible, airlines cannot schedule flights late to Port Harcourt, Owerri, Kaduna and even Benin due to security concerns.
But if an airline properly schedules its rotations in the day, it would minimize delays and flight cancelations.
THISDAY spoke to the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Captain Fola Akinkuotu, who said schedule and maintenance were very crucial to an airline and determines its operation success, revenue earnings and utilisation of aircraft.
In order to mitigate flight delays and cancellation, airlines can keep aircraft on standby in case if anyone in operation suffer bird strike, engine failure or even undercarriage problem. Once any of the aircraft in the fleet is grounded for any reason, the one on standby would be deployed.
But Akinkuotu noted that it might not be practically realistic to keep aircraft on standby while it generates expenses, instead of operating and earning revenue with it. He suggested that while an airline could maximiseeach aircraft in its fleet, it could reduce routing of one of the aircraft so that it could be on standby, but it is a waste of resources to keep airworthy aircraft on ground from morning till night.
“What you have to look at is this. Liken this situation to owning vehicles. If you have 10 vehicles you pay insurance, vehicle licence, roadworthiness and others….
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