Risk Management Means of Minimizing Accident in the Aviation Industry in Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main objective of the study is to ascertain the efficacy of risk management as a means of minimizing accidents in the aviation industry in Nigeria.
But to aid the successful completion of the study, the researcher intends to achieve the following specific objective;
- To ascertain the impact of risk management in curtailing the accident rate in the aviation sector
- To examine the role of management in minimizing aviation accident in Nigeria aviation sector
- To examine if there is any relationship between risk management prowess and accident rate in the aviation sector
- To examine the effect of risk management on the growth of Nigeria aviation industry
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
Airlines as provided in Article 96 of the International Civil Aviation Organization, is any air transport enterprises of operating a-schedule international air service. Everyday, the world‟s air services fly more than ten million aircraft miles and earn some US$400million of revenue from three million passenger journeys and the carriage of 30,000 tones of cargo and mail. Air transport throughout the world provides direct work for more than two million men and women (Charles, D.D and Okereke, N.O. 1997). All this has been founded on seventy-years of progress. Since commercial transport began to those years, it has known many vicissitudes through wars and rumour of wars; from times of recession to times of plenty, through crises in fuel supplies and in exchange currencies from the restrictions of over-regulation to the upheavals of deregulation, from embarrassments of excess capacity to the frustrations of critical shortages. Now, the industry struggles with some of the even greater problems of success, problems of congestion in controlled (or not so controlled), air space, problems of inadequate airport capacities, of low profit margins, of enforced retirement and replacement of older, noisy, aircrafts, and of rapid technological changes. They range all the way from new sophisticated marketing methods (notably computer reservation systems of maximize market shares) to significant advances in thermodynamics applied to turbine engines, and in composite materials for aircraft structures. 16 Charles and Okereke (1997) further explained that what was experiences was based upon many years of a steady reduction, in real terms, of both costs and fares. They now stand some 30 percent less than they were 20 years ago. That has been combined with increase in productivity in available tons miles per employee which has averaged more than three percent per annum during recent years. None of this would have been possible without an avid increase in demand. International Civil Aviation Organization Statistics revealed that in 1988, some 1.1 billion passenger journeys were performed, adding up to a total of more than 200 billion tone kilometers of passengers, cargo and mail. Passenger traffic predominates at some 76% of the total, some 30% of all traffic travels on international scheduled passenger services.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter deals with the method used in collecting data required in carrying out this research work it explains the procedures that were followed and the instrument used in collecting data.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to examine risk management as a means of minimizing accidents in the aviation industry in Nigeria.
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of risk management in the aviation sector.
Summary
The roles that air transport played significantly impacted positively on Nigeria economic development (Akpoghomeh, 1999; Adeniyi & Cmilt, 2011). This consists of entrepreneurial efficiency and innovations leading to revenue enrichment and increased productivity with rapid market growth through globalization, multinational institutions, cultural and political integration. According to Ogunkoya (2008), aviation services have facilitated competition in tourism and associated industries in Nigeria recently. Air travel in Nigeria is an important transportation mode because it provides an efficient way to link many cities spread across the six geo-political zones in the country. As shown in Table 5.25, air passenger growth in Nigeria experienced a deterred behaviour. The number of air passengers grew through the early 1990s, declined rapidly between 1995 and 2000, grew at average rates between 2001 and 2005, dropped sharply between 2006 and 2007 and then increased rapidly above average between 2008 and 2010.
Conclusion
Aviation safety concerns had a major influence on the development of Nigeria’s civil aviation. the number of aviation fatalities peaked (157) in 1996. In 1997, Nigeria had only 7 aviation fatalities following series of accidents, which included two crashes in 2000 and 2003 that claimed 162 and 111 lives respectively. These accidents exacerbated the effects of the financial crisis and resulted in the suppression of air passenger demand starting in 1997. This decrease in demand is reflected in the decrease of international air passenger arrivals in 1997 and 1998. The improvement of Nigeria’s aviation safety oversight has shown that only marginal improvements have been made since 1990s. For example, following a string of two crashes that killed at least 305 people between 2005 and 2006, the Nigeria authorities attempted to regulate the nation’s deficient airlines. Government grounded some 93 airlines and demanded inspections of their aircraft after the airlines were involved in accidents. However, despite these improvement efforts, Nigeria still had 3.77 fatal accidents for every 1 million take offs in three years that ended March 31, 2007 while the global average was 0.25 (IATA, 2008). Even though air passenger growth was suppressed due to aviation safety concerns, the overall growth of the airline industry aided in the development of Nigeria’s transport and tourism industry. However, the growth has been stagnant since 2003 partly due to the suppressed leisure passenger demand following the aviation fatalities. In addition to aviation safety concerns, international visitors were deterred by the poor safety conditions of other transportation modes and other security issues arising in the country.
Recommendations
Haven completed the study, the following recommendations are necessary to enhance safety in air transportation industry.
- Computerized flight planning system, that is still at infant stage in Nigeria should be fully embraced to promote air transport safety.
- In addition, on congested routes flight plan must produce summarize showing how much fuel would be needed if the aircraft is little lighter or heavier or if it is flying higher or lower than planned. These summarize allow flight “dispatchers and pilots to check if there is enough reserve fuel to cope with a different scenario.
- Also, while enroot, an aircraft may be diverted to some airport other than the planned alternate, A flight planning system can be produce a new light plan for the new route from the diversion point and transmit it to the aircraft, including a check that there will be enough fuel for the revised flight. This would be enhanced by computerized system.
Reference
- Akpoghome S.O (1999): The Development of Air Transportation in Nigeria (1930-1982) Journal of Transport Geography, New Services Vol. pp 50-63.
- Allan hay (1973): Transport for the Space Economy (London, Machmillan).
- Atalabi T.O (2000): Analyses of Operations of International passenger Traffic in Nigeria 1990 – 2000
- Dieprieye D.C (1988): The Challenges of Air Transportation in 21st Century
- Filani M.O, (1975a): Some Critical Issues in Air Transport Planning in Nigeria in Falola T. and Olanrewaju S.A (Eds). Transport System in Nigeria, Syracuse University New York.
- Filani M.O. and Onokomaiya S.O (1990): Transport Planning and Development in Nigeria.
