‘Akwa Ibom Government working to make Ibom Airport hub in West Africa

The Group Manager, Marketing and Communications, Ibom Air
Mrs. Aniekan Essienette, has disclosed that the
Akwa Ibom State Government is working to make Ibom Airport a hub in West Africa.

Essienette who disclosed this in Lagos during a recent press conference with aviation Journalists stated that the Akwa Ibom State Government had set up a tripod aviation eco-system projects, consisting of the newly-built hub terminal, the Ibom Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility and Ibom Airlines.

Group Manager, Marketing and Communications, Ibom Air noted that the plan of the State Government was to use the terminal to attract passengers to the state, while its airline, Ibom Air distributes them to regional markets in West Africa.

According to her, the goal of the airline to become a leading carrier in West Africa was still on course and is being fulfilled gradually, despite the challenges of foreign exchange and operating environment.

Essienette said the state’s MRO was meant to fill in the existing gap in the system, curb capital flight and reduce cost of maintenance for airlines.

“Our MRO is to fill a gap in the aviation space as we have only a few MROs in the entire African countries. The plan as at the time of set up, was to go into MRO in order to capture the market, reduce high cost of maintenance across the country, and reduce capital flights associated with maintenance.
The next phase was then the airport and the third phase was the airline. With the new terminal, we hope to become a hub and ensure it’s in tune with our business plan becoming a regional airline. We will be able to service not just the region in Nigeria, but the entire West African region. We intend to build a truly hub airport for the first time in Nigeria. That’s the idea” Essienette explained.

She said that a lot still needed to be done in the area of infrastructure at the nation’s airports.

Essienette said the government was addressing some of the deficits gradually.

In her words: “This is the dilemma that we have found ourselves. At times, you are not able to replenish quickly as you will want to and of course, if it is on the high cost, you will find a way of mitigating it in such a way that there is a balance, but what do we get from the public? Criticism.
About two weeks ago, we bought fuel at about N800, but today, it is N1,500 and the expectation is that you should not increase fares. If a bolt is loose, we don’t manufacture it here, you have to have naira, which has to wait for available dollar and until you get dollars, you will be able to transmit it, which is a huge challenge.”

While decring the free-fall of naira in recent times, Essienette maintained that while this had added up to operating costs for operators as the airlines could not increase their fares in commensuration with the current reality, despite the fact that most of aircraft’s components are sourced abroad.