‘Soon, every big man will want an airport at the doorstep of his bedroom’. These are the words of Allen Onyema, Air Peace CEO, sometime in 2020 or thereabout, expressing his concern over new airport licences being granted to states and how it is bad for the aviation industry. I agree with him. Let’s give specifics.
The combined land mass of the five south eastern states of Nigeria is approximately 30,000km2. Niger state alone is 76,000km2, Borno is 70,000km2. The state of New South Wales in Australia is 801,000km2, while Western Australia is a whooping 2.6 million km2. The farthest distance on road from any south eastern state or city to another is tops 2 hours (add another 1 hour for bad roads). From Perth in Western Australia to the outskirts of Sydney in New South Wales is a 36 hour drive. Let’s not talk about Canada.
Until recently, there were 2 airports in South East Nigeria, Enugu and Imo, and they functioned pretty well, with reasonably good traffic. In the first half of 2018, Owerri was the 5th busiest airport in the country with 246,607 passengers (3.4% of total volume of air traffic) passing through it. Enugu followed closely (6th busiest) with 173,324 passengers. In the first half of 2021, Enugu was the 4th busiest for domestic travels (231,669 passengers), even ahead of Kano.
However since the last 5 years, there has been this obsession by state governors to build an airport in their respective states before they leave office. It doesn’t matter if the states are already well served by airports in surrounding cities. Let’s take Anambra for instance. To the west, Asaba airport is only 30 minutes away (in fact Asaba airport to the head bridge is probably a 15-minute drive without traffic jam), to the North, Enugu airport (which conducts some international flights) is less than an hour away and to the south, Owerri airport is about an hour and a half away. Yet governor Obiano has built an airport in Anambra. Dickson did the same in Bayelsa. I will like to see how this pans out in the next few years.
Last year (2021), Governor Dave Umahi made serious headway in kick-starting an airport in Ebonyi (30 mins from Enugu airport). Just today, I stumbled on this video by Gov Okezie Ikpeazu on his intention to build an airport in Abia! (less than an hour from Imo airport). If they all have succeed, that means we will have 5 airports within 30,000km2 of land mass in south east Nigeria. Wonderful!
What people (especially our leaders and those cheering them) fail to understand is that the success of any airport depends on the traffic that runs through it, otherwise it becomes a liability to the government. If Owerri and Enugu account for less than 6% of total domestic air traffic in the country, think of what will happen when 3 more airports come on board. Then think of the airline companies. Air Peace currently runs 2 flights per day from Abuja to Owerri, and 3 per day from Lagos to Owerri. Most of these passengers transit to other cities (Aba and Onitsha are the busiest South Eastern cities, and the economic nerve centers). What will happen when 3 more airports come on board? 1 flight every other day to each city?
The truth is that these governors are doing this for their own luxury and convenience, and for their fellow ‘big men’. Otherwise it makes no economic sense. If they have the money to undertake such white elephant projects they can equally construct durable and motorable interstate roads that link these cities so that if you land in Owerri, 30 minutes later you are in Aba.
The south-east needs to start seeing itself as one bloc. The airport in Owerri shouldn’t be seen as an Imo airport but a south-eastern airport. There should be collaborative efforts to build the interstate roads. They should make economic policies as a unit. This airport competition is unhealthy. You cannot use state funds to build a hangar for your private jets and call it an international airport. It’s unfair.
Alpha Chiemezie Madu
January 27, 2022.