An ongoing rivalry between two of Nigeria’s biggest aviation ground firms, Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) Plc and Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Plc, that has led to dueling service costs looks to finally be coming to an end.
Both companies provide services to all foreign and domestic airlines that operate in the country, but because of the constant under cutting of costs in hopes to gain a upper hand over the other neither have been able to grown to become major handling companies.
“It is something that we believe that we will resolve. It is something that we believe that will be resolved. We have discussed with most of the airlines to let them know that we can’t continue to do that. We will let you know how it works out. Between us and SAHCOL, I think we have a better relationship and better understanding of issues. Hopefully, you won’t see that cutthroat competition as we go on. We will compete on service rather than in price other than service.” The Group Managing Director of NAHCO, Mrs. Olatokunbo Fagbemi,
“In terms of pricing, I think it is not just the ground handling sub-sector, but the entire environment and we have been speaking with NCAA. We need the protection of the regulatory agency in whatever we are doing.
“Before the change in foreign exchange, some of the airlines were paying in dollars and when the foreign exchange went haywire, it was not factored in it. However, it is something we believe we can resolve.”
Lack of investment is leading to infrastructure failure at airports, and increased maintenance costs.
“Within the warehouse, we have the forklift. The phase two has started. Part of it has come in. We are expecting the rest to come in within couple of weeks. Basically, most of our equipment is to support aircraft handling and our warehouse operations. Those are the equipment we bought”. She added Fagbemi.
“The new management of NAHCO is confident of achieving our targets in 2019 and beyond. We believe we can achieve our forecasts. We had thought deeply about the figures and put everything in place to ensure we achieve the forecasts. We stand by the forecasts that we have and we believe we will achieve them.”
photo credit: Bob Adams
