Wole Shadare 
The aviation industry may witness a first of its kind as Dana and Ibom Air may collaborate to interline their operations in the New Year according to a top official of the one of the airlines who spoke to New Telegraph exclusively at the weekend. He said domestic airline interline would help to solve some of the problems faced by airlines and passengers. Usually, if two airlines have an interline agreement in place, they will handle the check in and baggage for each other’s passengers.
That means travelers only have to check in once for all the flights on the itinerary, and that their baggage will be transferred by the first airline to the second airline, without them having to manually collect it and drop it off again. When two airlines enter into an interline agreement, it’s the most basic form of partnership you will find.
In essence, it allows passengers to book through itineraries on multiple airlines with less hassle than booking each one separately. It simply means that airline A passengers can travel to another destination with airline B without the former operating the flight but still make money because their operations are collapsed into each other. His words, I know Ibom Air and Dana are coming up with a new idea this year. They need to look for more collaboration by inter lining.
I don’t need to go Maiduguri if we have Max Air that goes to Maiduguri and at the end of the trip, we can reconcile and pay ourselves. Azman does not need to fly to Owerri if they can put their tickets on Dana or Arik and at the end of the month they can reconcile. With that, the industry can grow.” “They should be thinking in that direction. We should compete on on-time departure, schedule integrity.
That is what should work on to ensure passenger satisfaction is key”,he added. Managing Director of Aero Contractors, Capt. Ado Sanusi has equally disclosed that the sector is most likely to see some mergers aside the entrants of new airlines. Sanusi said this was necessary to cushion the effects of coronavirus on struggling Nigerian airlines. He however lamented that the country is in recession and a very difficult time for airlines and new entrants.
“In 2021, it will continue like this but I believe that there would be some new entrants and there would be some mergers and probably we will stabilize with the vaccines that are coming. The stabilization will come a little faster than you think. But the effect of COVID-19 will be here like for five or ten years but we will see probably some mergers and some entrants into the market”. “The prices might stabilize. The prices will go down definitely in February, March because that is when the demand will go down. The prices might stabilize around that period. If you take an overall average, the prices will still reflect the dollar-Naira conversion rate.
There might still be an increase”. “My problem with start-up airlines in the country, they hire professionals to do their business case and after that, they totally push it aside and they don’t care if it is good or not. The new airlines that are coming, they might succeed.
“The problem with these new airlines coming is that most of them have another reason for owning an airline. It is not just that they are entering into the business of aviation, they have another reason because aviation exposes you; it would give you popularity and for them to also get loans and by getting foreign exchange. That is the problem why Nigerian airlines are not strong enough, financially well stable”, he said.
