In Akwa Ibom State, one of Nigeria?s energy hubs, a high-stakes battle is unfolding; not for oil resources, but for seats on flights to Uyo, the state capital.

With over a dozen International Oil Companies (IOCs) based in the state, the demand for flights has skyrocketed, yet the airlines flying to Uyo and Calabar, the neighbouring state capital, struggle to keep up.

Insiders in the oil sector, who spoke anonymously to Daily Sun, revealed that air travel to Uyo has become a logistical bottleneck, with airlines frequently overbooked.

In some dire cases, companies have been forced to cancel critical meetings because key personnel could not secure seats.

When flights to Uyo are unavailable, staff often attempt alternate routes via Calabar, only to face the same flight shortages and unreliable road connections.

Flight challenges in Calabar compound IOCs? woes

Daily Sun reported last week on the worsening travel conditions in Calabar, where residents are resorting to boat trips to Uyo just to secure flights to other states. Despite the presence of three domestic airlines; Ibom Air, Aero Contractors and Air Peace, officials have informed Daily Sun that the state remains inadequately served by air travel options.

Aero Contractors and Air Peace websites show that they do not operate daily. For Ibom Air, the Chief Operating Officer, George Uresi, told Daily Sun that the airline has consistently operated one flight to Calabar daily, which is always filled to capacity.

Nonetheless, the Special Adviser to the Governor of Cross River State on Aviation, Dr. Kenn Aklah, told Daily Sun that the shortage of flights to Calabar has forced many residents to take risky boat trips to Uyo to catch flights to other parts of the country. He believes the actual demand for flights from Calabar is significantly higher than currently acknowledged.

?A lot of our people leave from Calabar through the water to get to Uyo to board a flight from there because not all the airlines currently operating in Calabar fly every day. This creates a situation where many of the aircraft that fly out of Uyo are filled with Cross Riverians who live in Calabar but because they couldn?t get a flight directly from Calabar, they have to go to Uyo through the water and then take a flight from there,? he said. To address this issue, the Cross River State government acquired two additional aircraft, increasing its state-owned fleet to four. Currently, two of these aircraft are being operated by Aero Contractors.

This development, as narrated by Aklah where Calabar residents flock to Uyo to catch flights to other states, may have contributed to the surge in passenger traffic to and fro Akwa Ibom.

An IOC insider told Daily Sun of a specific week, very recently, where critical meetings, which were to be held in Uyo, had to be rescheduled due to the inability to secure tickets for their personnel as all available flights were fully booked.

The source said that when they could not get direct flights to Uyo, they made attempts to reroute their personnel through Calabar, with the intention of completing the journey to Uyo by road. However, that option also proved unworkable, as no flights were available to Calabar on the chosen day. As a last resort, they flew into Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and continued their journey by road to Uyo.

The condition of the Calabar?Itu road connecting Uyo and Calabar is also very bad and does not help matters.

During the rainy season, a journey that typically takes under two hours can stretch to as long as five, due to poor road conditions and traffic disruptions.

Multinational companies like Lafarge, which maintain operations in Calabar, face precarious situations.

?Lately, we have noticed that it has become increasingly difficult to get flights to Uyo because you?ll be told that the flights are fully booked and this is now forcing companies to postpone engagements. There was a particular week in which we had to postpone very important meetings because we couldn?t get tickets to Uyo, as the flights were all fully booked. When we couldn?t get a flight directly to Uyo, we tried getting one to Calabar so we could go by road from there to Uyo, but we couldn?t get a flight that day, so we had to go through Port Harcourt. Unfortunately, even driving through the Calabar?Itu road is very tortuous because the road is in a very terrible condition,? the source lamented.

IOCs? travel policies

Daily Sun learned that IOCs maintain very strict travel policies with preferences for certain domestic and international airlines. These companies evaluate the airlines that fly their personnel across Nigeria and also internationally based on certain metrics like punctuality, customer service, quality of onboard service, etc. If a domestic or international airline fails to meet these standards, employees are prohibited from using it for official travel.

Each company has a dedicated travel unit that manages flight bookings. Employees who are required to travel for official duties have to put in their details into a portal or channel which only displays company approved airlines. It was reliably learned that booking a non-approved airline for official travel can attract unpalatable consequences. This policy, it was further gathered, is practiced across IOCs operating in Nigeria. Not only do these companies have preferred airlines, they also apply similar restrictions to hotels and hospitals, ensuring that employees only use approved service providers that meet their standards.

?If their preferred scheduled airlines aren?t available, they would rather not fly or they would instead take chartered flights. The evaluation metrics are taken so seriously that if company A doesn?t use airline Z to fly, you can be rest assured that all other companies would also not use that airline,? sources explain.

Weekend travel mostly affected

The immediate past president of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agents (NANTA), Susan Akporiaye, told Daily Sun that the availability of flights to Uyo fluctuates depending on the day of the week.

?It is not all the time that flights to Uyo are fully booked. There must always be a reason. All routes across the country are generally tight on weekends,? she said.

She recounted a recent experience where she was able to secure a Thursday flight for a client because there were flights in the morning and evening. However, she said in the previous week, she was unable to book a flight for the same client as all the flights to Uyo were fully booked. She said that the situation has to be observed for a longer period before concluding that flight unavailability to Uyo has become a persistent pattern.

?It all depends on the day of the week, so I would not say it has become a pattern. One has to observe it for a longer period of time to be able to conclude that it has become a pattern. But for now, it is mostly during the weekends that it is usually very difficult to get a flight or maybe when something is happening,? she added. (Daily Sun)

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