Professionals advocate Endorsement of BSP
Professionals in the Nigerian aviation industry have canvassed for the emplacement of a guaranteed payment process such as Bill Settlement Plan (BSP) for indigenous airlines to foster interline and codeshare arrangements. The professionals also agreed that while interline and codeshare are business decisions, such should not to be initiated by regulatory fiat, rather said its endorsement was necessary by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
These were parts of the communiqué reached at the end of the Aviation Safety Roundtable Initiative (ASRTI) webinar held recently with the theme: ‘Utilising Interlining & Codeshare Agreements as Tools for Domestic Airlines’ Profitability & Passenger Comfort.’
The communiqué, which was made available to aviation journalists by Mr. Olumide Ohunayo, Assistant General Secretary, ASRTI, stated that the Quarter 1 Business Breakfast Meeting (2021 Q1BBM), advised NCAA to use the regulatory inducements and other strategic policies in fostering interlining and codeshare among airlines without compromising the stipulated annual economic audit on all domestic airlines to determine their state of health as Part 18 of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulation (NCAR) stipulates.
Participants also advised airlines to embark on human capacity building for their staff on commercial agreements, negotiation, codeshare, revenue management and applicable work ethics.
“Participants acknowledged flight cancellation and the perishability of unused seats as important challenges to trigger interlining and code-share agreements as tools for minimising hardship experienced by passengers and the enhancement of airlines profitability, quality of service and revenue generation. “The webinar highlighted the expediency for Nigeria’s aviation supervisory authorities to compliment the safety with economic will, while airlines develop the willingness to embrace technical cooperation arrangements in order to exploit the huge profitability opportunities in the regional air transport market under such agreements.
“For Nigerian airlines to be attractive to foreign carriers for codeshare and other partnerships, it is recommended that operators be International Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) compliant, develop attractive route networks, ensure good product quality, develop the requisite commercial acumen and understand the contract terms of their engagement,” the communiqué added.
The professionals explained that partnership and cooperation models work amongst airlines that considered themselves peers, stressing that no single cooperation model fits it all and further canvassed for cooperation among domestic airlines.
Besides, the communiqué suggested for a local clearing system that addresses the current challenges of industry credit and place sales in a float account using solutions as the proposed One-Ticket solution where funds flow directly to the holder of the flown coupon.
