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| British Airways |
British mega
carrier, British Airways, has described Nigeria as its biggest market for air
transport business, adding that the airline is investing heavily on new
airplanes in Africa and Middle East.
Two years ago,
the British carrier posted a revenue of about N30 billion, ranking as the high
revenue earner by any foreign airline on the lucrative London-Lagos-Abuja
route. Head, Middle-East, Africa and Central Asia, sales, British Airways,
Paolo de Renziz, in an interview with New Telegraph, said that in terms of
investment, “we’ve been investing in the last eight years and we keep on investing
in new planes in Africa and Middle- East.
“We are launching our B787- 900 on
Abu-Dhabi-London route, we will be enhancing our products on Nigerian route.
In January we
are refurbishing our B747, Club World and World Traveller will be reconfigured
and new inflight entertainment.” The airline chief stated that the airline had
been growing capacity in the past eight years, describing the Nigerian market
as “very important to us.”
He said:
“There is a lot of competition, especially in Dubai, which is the biggest in
the last five years. We are familiar with competition, but we’ve been around
for many years, we enjoy competition, we will compete very well, having been
around for so long.”
Speaking on
the competition Medview is going to pose to already established airlines, de
Renzis said that the carrier welcomes the entrance of Nigeria’s flag carrier on
the route, describing them as friends and competitors.
He added that
competition helps to put the airlines on their toes by thinking, reacting
faster and thinking of the customers.
“We just said
to Medview ‘good luck and enjoy Gatwick and let the best man win.’ The world
has changed, you can’t be thinking of killing competition, competition makes
you better and the customers are better for it, but the best man win at the
end,” he added. Just last week, Nigeria’s flag carrier airline, Medview,
disclosed that it had concluded plans to begin Lagos- London route on November
20, 2015.
The disclosure
was heartwarming, indicating that Nigerian airlines are ready to partake in the
huge market share.
The
Lagos-London route is about the most lucrative route for any Nigerian airline
if they apply the right type of model, notwithstanding predatory attitude of
mega carriers like British Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways and many other
European airlines. Experts said that the U.KNigeria market is currently served
on a daily basis by Arik, BA, and Virgin Atlantic.
There is an on
daily basis demand of an estimated 2,500 passengers a day between Nigeria and
UK before looking at connection options and this has grown at an average annual
rate of 9.2 per cent since 2010. Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa as
well as the most vibrant air transport market on the continent.
It is hard to
rationalise and justify why Nigerian airlines have such a small share of their
own market. But the fact remains that Nigeria is a signatory to the Abuja
Treaty of 2004 under which the Yamoussoukro Decision of 1999, liberalising
African skies, is legally-binding.
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