By Louis Ibah
South African Airways (SAA) yesterday announced it decision to discontinue its Abuja – Johannesburg flight operations over security concerns in the region.
The decision to suspend Abuja operations followed the Federal Government’s decision diverting local and international carriers to Kaduna Airport during the six weeks maintenance work on the Abuja Airport runway.
South African Airways, which has already communicated its decision via a letter to the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, stated that as from March 6, 2016 to April 18, 2017, it would no longer operate the Johannesburg-Abuja route, thus joins Lufthansa and other carriers opting out of the Kaduna Airport.
Following the decision, the airline has stopped sale of tickets on that route, a development that certainly would hurt the income of Nigerian travel and tours agents as well as ground handling and catering companies that provide services to SAA on its Abuja-Johannesburg route. The airline, however, said it would continue to operate the Lagos-Johannesburg flights.
Part of the letter read: “SAA commends the Nigerian authorities concerning the planned repairs of the NAIA runway. However, due to network and fleet operations planning, SAA regrets to advise that the airline will suspend its Abuja operations with effect from March 6, 2017 until the April 18, 2017.
“The airline promised to be in constant touch with the Nigerian aviation authorities as the repair work progresses in order to establish its readiness for revised operations in accordance with the work schedule.”
South African Airways becomes the 2nd major foreign carrier after Lufthansa to openly opt out of the Kaduna Airport as an alternate to the Abuja airport.
Last week, Lufthansa, German airline, also announced it was opting out of Kaduna.
Industry sources told Daily Sun that apart from the African carriers that operate into the Abuja airport and were also willing to use the Kaduna airport as alternate, while the other notable foreign carriers like British Airways, Air France, Ethiopian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, EgyptAir, and Lufthansa Airways were planning to halt the utilisation of their BASA slots on the Abuja route pending the conclusion of repair and reopening of the airport. Such foreign carriers have cited insecurity of Kaduna state as reasons and were not also comfortable with the arrangement of having passengers ferried by buses and escorted by security personnel from Kaduna to Abuja.
Analysts estimate that Nigeria could lose about N2 billion during the six weeks period in which the Abuja airport would be shut.