Pecohub Three years after six Nigerian airlines formed the ‘Spring Alliance’ to support each other’s operations and enhance passenger service, shrinking fleet sizes have continued to undermine the initiative.
In 2022, Air Peace, Azman Air, United Nigeria Airline, Arik Air, Aero Contractors and Max Air signed the alliance to engage in interline collaboration to protect their operations and improve service delivery to passengers.
The purpose of the alliance was also to curb flight delays among the six partners, give one another technical support and ensure that passengers are airlifted by any of the members, irrespective of their tickets.
However, three years after the agreement was signed, passengers have continued to face flight delays and cancellations as member airlines have continued to struggle with shrinking fleets, which most times cannot cater for their passengers and other airlines.
Allen Onyema, chairman and CEO Air Peace, said: “We still have our own Spring Alliance amongst ourselves. The problem is that sometimes when you call the other airline, they may have a full aircraft, and capacity then becomes the issue,” he said.
Stakeholders have however argued that at a time when there are dwindling numbers of air passengers over increase in airfares and low disposable income, passenger glut reflects huge aircraft shortage in the domestic airlines travel space.
Pecohub’s findings show that airlines have been unable to airlift all of their passengers without record of flight delays and cancellations.
