SAHCOL Calls For Upward Review Of Rates For Services Rendered

The acting Managing Director of Skyway Aviation Handling Company Ltd (SAHCOL), Mr. Basil Aboarumi, has expressed dissatisfaction over the prevailing unhealthy relationship between ground handling firms and Airlines, noting that ground handling companies still charge old rates irrespective of the value of the naira to the dollar and some other dynamics in the economy.

Aboarumi expressed this at the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) forum recently held at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja.

The poor service charge, he said is as a result of unhealthy price competition amongst  the ground handling sub-sector which he described as price war as prices are slashed to gain market share thereby affecting the sector as a whole.

Comparing the industry with banking industry, he said “Let’s look at the banking industry for instance; there is a regulator that regulates their activities. For instance, the handling rates we pay in Nigeria has not changed over the years despite the fall in naira to the dollar and other major currencies.

“The airlines have consistently changed their fares, but we have not done that for so many years. We still operate with the same tariff that we have been operating up to the time naira was N165 to a dollar and regrettably today, the rate has grown more than double.

“What it costs us to buy a ground handling equipment today has grown astronomically. It is not that the cost has changed, but whereby we were spending one naira to buy a ground handling equipment before, by the time we source for foreign exchange, you will see that it has gone to about N3. That’s the situation we have found ourselves. But, the airlines still pay the same amount of money they have been paying us even before then.”

Commenting on the rivalry among major ground handling firms, the acting managing director said: “Cooperation is for the best of the industry; we as a company we have identified cooperation as the tonic to build the industry. We will continue to do our best, take the right step and initiative to ensure that what can give us the kind of aviation that we desire in the future is done.

“In other parts of the world, ground handling companies are pooling resources together; it is for us to get to that maturity stage. Even airlines are cooperating now. When you have airlines in various parts of the world, they complement each other in passenger and cargo operations. We will have a better aviation industry once we begin to look at the industry from that perspective,” he said.