Enugu Airport may be FG’s guinea pig in airport concession plans — Aligbe

2026-02-21 - 07:06

•How South-East stakeholders failed on deal •Passes verdict on Aviation minister, Keyamo •Says Renewed Hope yet to reach passengers in airline sector By Dickson Omobola It is nearly two months into 2026, yet former General Manager, Public Affairs of defunct Nigeria Airways, Mr Chris Aligbe, did not hold back in his assessment of the aviation sector in 2025. Like always, he was candid, engaging and chatty. Extremely passionate about the industry, Aligbe, now the Chief Executive Officer of Belujane Konzult, in this exclusive interview, speaks on the recently signed Enugu Airport concession agreement, the challenges hindering the country’s domestic airlines and their inability to respond effectively to the reform push of Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo. Background: We are looking at the past year. One can say that aviation cannot be written off as a sector that has made some progress, but so much still remains because we are not near where we should be. I think that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, the regulatory body, has achieved quite some success in its regulation of the industry. At least, it has kept the flag flying in terms of accident-free aviation. So, one would acknowledge its efforts, particularly in the teething area, which is consumer protection; it has achieved quite a lot of success. There were no very serious complaints during the Yuletide. You could say kudos to them, not only to the NCAA, but also to the airlines. The airlines now know that there is a regulatory body that will not close its eyes to any misdemeanour. Even the passengers themselves also know that air rage and ground rage will no longer be acceptable. Give them also credit in the area of regulatory oversight in terms of the operational safety of airlines. What you can use to adjudge this is that the industry has remained accident-free. I also saw that just this year, the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority and the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, were here. The UK CAA went to Abuja while the FAA went to Lagos. It is alright because they are coming to look at our safety mechanism. The issue of security and safety is a continuum. So, one can understand both of them. UK airlines are flying into Nigeria, both Lagos and Abuja. US airlines are flying to Lagos. So, they are concerned about safety and security, ensuring that things have not declined. For the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, it has tried to hold the fort. The complaints we used to have, such as blind spots in terms of radio communication systems, gradually became fewer and then airlines became quite comfortable flying into and overflying our airspace. NAMA has done well and continues to keep the flag flying. Coming to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, we had all thought that the airport in Lagos would be concessioned, but government, in its own wisdom, decided to put money into it and upgrade it. What they want to upgrade or rebuild cannot be fully assessed until the final product is out. I sincerely hope that what they are doing in improving the facilities will also improve the passenger holding and processing capacity, so that at least we can have a larger capacity at our airport. Yes, it is true that traffic has dwindled, but it is because of the economic situation in our country. People have little money for survival and do not have enough to spend on flying. And the cost of flying has become such that people just have to make sure that if they do not have to travel, they do not travel. Even companies are becoming circumspect about how much they spend on air travel, except when it is really necessary. Another thing people do not know is that what has impacted traffic today is the effective telecommunication system. Many meetings are held online. If you cannot attend physically, you participate through online platforms, whether it is WhatsApp or Zoom. Many people participate in meetings without travelling. People have not sat down to assess the impact of this on the volume of traffic. That said, it is not only in Nigeria that online meetings are held and Zoom meetings conducted. In other countries where that is done, passenger traffic is growing. But Nigeria shows a downturn in passenger traffic, which is a very serious challenge to our airlines. And sometimes I do not blame them; there is no need to acquire more aircraft when your passenger traffic is not growing. My only hope and prayer is that what government is doing to address the economic downturn will at least be successful so that we can have an upsurge in the economy. If we do, passenger traffic will grow. You can see that the growth or stable level of passenger volume is more evident on international routes rather than on domestic routes. You have always spoken in favour of airport concession. Are you happy that the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu has finally been concessioned? I do not understand what government did on the Enugu Airport concession. I am a supporter of concession, but it must be transparent and add value. It must be given to those who know how to add value. It must have projections. What I keep asking is: what would be the capacity of that airport after the period of concession? That is what people do. People use concessions to develop an airport. Sometimes, concessionaires build, upgrade and transfer, or expand, operate and transfer because the concession has a terminal date. There must be milestones. In five or 10 years, what do we expect to see at this airport? In 15 or 20 years, what do we expect to see? How many passengers will this airport be able to process? What would be the rating of this airport after the concession? When handing it over, are you going to hand over dilapidated structures as you took over? Are you going to give us new terminals that can stand the test of time? That is not clear at all with the concessioning. Honestly speaking, it is not the kind of concessioning that one wants to see. It is not a good model of concessioning. And to think that Enugu is an international airport, and the only international airport in the eastern part. For a long time, Enugu will not turn into a major international airport. It is sad that stakeholders, I mean people from the South-East and the travellers, are not speaking out. They have allowed it to go the way it is going. If tomorrow the next generation complains of marginalisation, it is not President Bola Tinubu. It is not Mr Keyamo who marginalised them. It is their own people, and they should hold them responsible for allowing what is being pushed forward. I do not know what other airports government will concession, but maybe Enugu Airport is the guinea pig. Attempts have been made in the past to concession Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt, but they did not succeed. That is why I say Enugu may be a guinea pig. But if the frontline stakeholders had complained and opened their eyes, they would have got a better deal. A lot has been said about the airport concessionaire. What is their track record, especially in the area of airport development? Maybe, for the moment, the company exists below my mental radar or perception. I cannot say very much about them. It is not one of the top-line airport concession companies that I know. That is not to say I am writing them off. I cannot write them off, but I cannot give approval until we know them, more importantly, until we know what that airport will become. I mean the terms of the concession. Honestly speaking, for me, it is an unknown entity. Maybe it is my limited knowledge, but I have quite some knowledge of records of airport concessionaires. That organisation is not part of it for now. I still believe that government should concession airports, but they should do better concessioning. I say this because this country has one of its citizens who has handled concessions. That is Bayo Ogunlesi. When I saw him last year come to visit the President, I beat my chest, saying thank God the President is looking in the right direction. However, Enugu Airport has not shown me that his knowledge was tapped. How do you feel about the fact that the terms of the agreement are still unknown to the public? That is a big challenge because all concessions are open. When you do it, you will be proud to say you have done this concession, and it goes into the global system. By now, if you open Google, it should show you the terms of the concession, what the parties are looking at after the concession period and the value of the concession. In Nigeria, our processes are done in secrecy. It has been a long time since I left government (not Nigeria Airways). I worked in the Cabinet Office. I worked in the Executive Office of the President. I know how decisions were made, and they were made openly. For now, a lot of things have changed. As an industry person, I can say this is not what I knew about concessions because I have studied quite a number of concessions. In Africa, Tunisia has it. Enfidha-Hammamet International Airport was built purely on concession. We have lots of experience in the Asian industry from which we can learn. India gives us a classic example because it has different forms of concessions. There are many airports that operate under different forms of concession. What is your take about the airline subsector? The Minister of Aviation, when he came in, had certain key performance indicators, KPIs. One of them was to lift Nigerian domestic airlines to a point where we would at least feel comfortable about their operations. Has Keyamo succeeded with his key performance indicators in this area? There are nine success factors that Keyamo has been able to achieve; four of them are what economists call push-factor successes. Today, the airlines have their challenges, but how far have they responded to Keyamo’s successes? He started this success with the Cape Town Convention, CTC, process and rescued the country from the leasing problem. That is one success factor, which is a push factor. How much have the airlines responded? In his zeal to make things happen, Keyamo has successfully renegotiated some Bilateral Air Service Agreements, BASAs. We have renegotiated Brazil, France and many more. Keyamo’s successes are like live wires on the ground waiting to be connected. However, they have not been connected, and because they have not been connected, the public is not feeling this success. When you look at it, Keyamo is an indisputable apostle of the Renewed Hope agenda. If hope is to be renewed in the airline sector, who will the hope be renewed for? It is the passenger. When the passengers start feeling his successes, then you know hope has been renewed. You understand? But now, the passengers are not feeling it because the agents, the airlines, who are to connect his successes with the passengers are not functioning optimally. Some airlines are trying, particularly those that have limited their approach to domestic and regional routes. Yes, the cost of airfares and everything else is still an issue, but the airlines are facing multiple challenges, both internal and external. If they can shout about the external challenges, they should also accept the internal challenges coming from within and address their own internal challenges, which they are not doing. What are those internal challenges? They should look at how modern airlines operate. First, corporate governance is so critical that if you are an airline and you are not seen as having a corporate governance structure, no foreign airline will want to deal with you. None of our airlines has a corporate governance structure; they are all one-man shows. I have said it twice: African World Airlines, AWA, started operating around 2012 with only eight aircraft. The man who started it, an ambassador from Kumasi, within three years invited investors. There are four or five major investors in AWA. This constitutes a corporate governance structure. Today, the airline is doing well with many codeshare partners. Why do you always compare AWA to our airlines? Many will disagree with you on some of your points... How many frequencies does the airline operate into Nigeria? 27. That is one. Two, the critical thing is that it has 10 codeshare partners, including British Airways, Emirates, Air France and Turkish Airlines. What is their basis for saying it is not doing better than our carriers? The measure of success in the airline industry is the bottom line. However, for those who believe that Nigerian airlines are doing better, let them state their reasons. It will be good for all of us to learn because maybe our yardsticks are different. It is not about size but effectiveness, management and the bottom line, all of which AWA has. The internal challenges hindering our airlines include the owner-manager syndrome, lack of corporate governance, poor capitalisation, lack of understanding of the market and route network, and absence of codeshare and alliances. They do not have codeshare arrangements, even at the local level. I still think our airlines’ inability to interline with one another is a major problem, apart from the owner-manager syndrome. Externally, one of the major areas the Ministry has not addressed sufficiently is to ensure that airlines can fly into any destination at night. How many of our airports conduct night operations? They can blame it on insecurity, but not every part of Nigeria suffers from insecurity. In many countries, airlines operate at night. Night flights are cheaper than day flights. We need to improve that. There should be more 24 hours operational airports because airport infrastructure is critical for airlines. How about a first-rate Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul, MRO, facility? Who is supposed to establish an MRO? Check all the MROs around the world; 85 per cent of them originated from airlines. In Nigeria Airways, we built one. We could carry out various checks up to C-check and partly D-check. To build an MRO is a function of careful planning, and our airlines need to do that.