Safety and Security Management in the Nigerian Tourism Industry amidst Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Ibom Airline

Writer: Asiogu Ugochukwu Chrysantus

Table of Contents

Introduction

An Overview of Safety and Security Management in the Tourism Sector

Current and future key safety and security issues in the Nigerian Airline Industry amidst Covid-19 Pandemic: A case study of Ibom Air

Recommendations on how to respond to the specified issues and threats

Conclusion

References

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Introduction

Before delving into the thrust of this report, it would not be totally out of place to grasp a concise connotative understanding of what safety and security entail. It is on this note that (Nas, 2015) pointed out that the words of safety and security are being used interchangeably in daily use of languages and yet they are defined as a synonym in many dictionaries. On the other hand, he notes that for a long while, there has been an attempt to clarify in what way ‘security’ differs from ‘safety’ in terms of meaning in aviation and maritime transportation. While Nas (2015) defined safety as the state of being away from hazards caused by natural forces or human errors randomly, he equally defined security as the state of being away from hazards caused by deliberate intention of human to cause harm.

On the other hand, it is important to note that as humans are no island on their own, so is the society and environment at large. Hence, at one time or the other, there has always been need for some sort of interrelationships between and among individuals, groups, governments, organizations and even more interestingly, the ecosystem for the sole aim of survival and the protection of self-interests. Collaborating together in society, in a bid to achieve some sort of interest as well as survive the effects of isolation, of course, never was without contending challenges in the form of disagreements, disputes and conflicts which in turn, resulted in the need for mankind to begin the quest and search for safety and security. Safety from natural and man-made hazards and security from being consumed by both natural and organizational threats

There is virtually no institution or organization (either public or private) across the globe where safety and security issues are not prioritized. This is because human safety and security is paramount for organizational growth and productivity. As such, in situations where there is lack of it, there is bound to be retardation of human progress and insecurity. Thus, based on the foregoing, the thrust of this work is to make a report on safety and security management in tourism with the Nigerian airline industry as case study amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

An Overview of Safety and Security Management in the Tourism Sector

In the tourism sector, the issues of safety and security have always been unarguable as it forms part of the industry’s modus operandi even though there is a recognizable amount of lacuna inherent in the system. However, consequent upon rapidly changing circumstances in the world usually disguised in the form of civil communal and civil wars, natural and man-made disasters, diseases and pandemics, the effects of insecurity have been proliferated such that humans have continuously lived in fear and thus are unsafe.

According to Owiyo & Mulwa (2018) the travel and tourism industry could not avoid the negative impacts and consequences of the aforementioned events. Furthermore, they noted that some of these events manifested the vulnerability of tourism both on global and regional levels and this necessitated the research and study of the relationship between security issues and tourism including the creation of an updated definition of the notion ‘security and safety in tourism.’ Explaining the essence of safety and security issues in the travel and tourism industry, Owiyo & Mulwa (2018) emphasized that safety and security matters have been treated as important condition of tourism. Using the ancient Olympic Games as case study, they noted that the Olympic Games were so important to the Greek Polises that all warfare was suspended for its duration. However, this great extent of risks contributed to the decline of travel in the middle Ages.

It is interesting to note that the 1950s marked a watershed of the emergence a tremendous increase in the mass movement of tourist across the globe and as obvious as this may seem, issues related with safety and security management protocols in the tourism industry gained currency. The three reasons behind this evolution process as mentioned by Matiza and Slabbert (2020) include the following. First, travel and tourism became more than an activity of a narrow social class but rather, the whole widening middle class got involved into it. This means that tourism became an all encompassing activity embraced by all and sundry in society regardless of class and social standing. Second,  tourism gradually covered a wide range of countries and regions in the world and not only highly developed countries enabled to generate out-going tourism flows got involved in tourism, but also countries domiciled in the developing countries of global South who took advantage of tourism as part of their economic development. Third, the rapid and scenic development of transport (aviation, automotive industry) contributed to the rise of geographical mobility.

In a bid to be more specific in regard to reporting on the safety and security, management in the travel and tourism industry, the conduct of airline operations in Nigeria together with its challenges and prospects amidst Covid-19 pandemic would form the premise upon which this report stands. It is instructive to note that just like in every other tourist sector; safety and security also play an essential role in the aviation industry. In fact, safety in the aviation industry has become an issue of primary concern not only in various airlines across the globe, but also in Nigeria. It is so important such that it is a priority in the safety and security operation and management procedures outlined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Based on the foregoing, one might be interested to know why safety and security is turns out to be an issue of emergent responsibility to airlines. The answer is not farfetched. This is because security is development and without development, there may not be need for security. It is common knowledge that without the safety and security of airline passengers and aircrafts, airline business is bound to crumbling. As such, airlines put in their best possible to ensuring that their passengers and aircrafts are safe so that their businesses would continue to attain reasonable growth and development.

According to Ability (2022), one of the informants interviewed in the course of writing this report, aviation security entails procedures put in place by airlines to ensure the safety and protection of passengers and aircrafts from the point of embarkation to the point of disembarkation. It is all-encompassing as it stretches across all the operational departments of the airline industry. Furthermore, Indu, Sharma, Kumar & Rajinsh (2014) emphasized that aviation safety overtime, has been based on the reactive investigation of past mishaps and the acquaintance of past restorative movements with the motive of averting the repeat of the aforementioned occasions. On the other hand, aviation safety remains a critical factor in passenger trust of an airline, reputation, and international prestige. It determines the state in which the risks connected with aviation activities, linked to, or indirect support of aircraft operation, are reduced and controlled to an acceptable level (Eranga, Jose, & Graham, 2018).

Historically, aviation safety has been built upon the reactive analysis of past accidents and the introduction of corrective actions to prevent the repetition of those events (Indu, Sharma, Kumar & Rajinsh (2014). In other words, the aviation industry tends to be more reactive to its operational patterns to eventualities than active. Consequently, going by such approach and in line with what is obtainable in this contemporary time, when accidents of such nature – plane crash, plane hijack, among others are not so frequent in Nigeria; it is almost difficult to make arrangements on the safety and security of airlines with such traditional approach. Thus, a proactive approach to managing safety and security such that there would be more concentration on the control of the processes before time rather than solely relying on inspection and remedial actions on end products was developed and such an innovation in aviation system safety became known as ‘Safety Management System’ (SMS); an expression indicating that safety efforts are most effective when made a fully integrated part of the business operation (Indu, Sharma, Kumar & Rajinsh (2014).

It should be noted that accidents, whether physically or technically-oriented are often caused by humans. In fact, while the aircrafts are man-made, the airline businesses are also constituted by a group of people whose decisions and ideologies form the basic part of airline operations. As such, the challenges that affect the operations of airlines in Nigeria are either caused by improper and unsafe internal decisions or external factors consequent upon the insecure nature of the environment which constitute the airline industry. For these reasons, the need for safety and security management becomes more intense and relevant to airlines industries in Nigeria.

Current and future key safety and security issues in the Nigerian Airline Industry amidst Covid-19 Pandemic: A case study of Ibom Air.

Keselova, Blistanova, Hanak, & Brunova (2021) stated that air transport has become an integral part of life with a growing trend, but in the year 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic halted its growth and expansion. Despite this fact, International Air Transport Association (IATA) published a scenario analysis that over the next twenty years, global air passenger growth could plausibly be in the range between 3.2% and 5.3% (IATA, 2020). Be that as it may, the Covid-19 pandemic had severe effects on the operation of airline industries in Nigeria especially Ibom Air, which happens to be one of the newest but exceptionally active airlines in the country. The Covd-19 pandemic resulted in not only the placing of restrictions on air travel but also a reorganization of the operational procedure of the airline. These new procedures, although, seemed rigid and somewhat unfair to the passengers of Ibom Airline,, but on the contrary, it was for the safety and security of  the passengers, aircrafts, as well as the staff and management of the entire industry.

According to Isaiah (2022), one of the challenges encountered by Ibom Airline amidst Covid-19 pandemic was constant breach of optimal service delivery by the passengers of the airline. Explaining further, he noted that some passengers were fund of compromising the safety and security operational standards of the industry. They often do this by tempting the staff of the airline on duty with some form of enticing objects like gifts and money in order to be allowed to break safety protocols without any form of admonishment, restrictions and official ban. Events of such nature often occur and are embarrassing especially when such passengers are caught, exposed and apprehended in the process and exposed. Most of them, having being reprimanded, out of shame, often raise their voices against the staff and management and even threaten to inflict harm on them. But the fact here is that in line with the safety protocols of the airline, collection of tips of any form by its staff is highly unacceptable and it attracts indefinite suspension of the staff caught in such act. This is because compromising the safety and security protocols of the organization for instance, allowing passengers to go on board with prohibited substances such as liquid e.g. palm oil, groundnut oil; allowing overweight luggage that is/are more than what the airline had stipulated, boarding more than the number of passengers expected to be seated inside an aircraft, selling out a boarded passenger’s ticket to another for personal gains among others, exposes the airline to damnable consequences such as airplane crash.

Again, there is an issue of customer care challenges. In this regard, Ability (2022), explained that dishonesty, lack of transparency and unwillingness towards the declaration of the contents of luggage by the passengers poses a tremendous safety and security risk to the airline especially amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. According to her, most passengers are fund of lies especially in regard to the size, weight and contents of their luggage. Also, most pregnant women lie about the status of their pregnancy in order to be checked-in and allowed to board the plane. For instance, it is the airline’s policy that women who are thirty-six week pregnant would not be allowed to travel on air for the sake of their safety and security but unfortunately, there are incidents where pregnant women try to force themselves into the airplane irrespective of their condition as well as the safety policies and protocols of the airline.

Some other passengers are not transparent enough in their decision whether to board a plane or not as well as in the timing for flight take-off. Here, in a bid to maintain social distancing on board, passengers are being spaced from one another. As such, the original number of passengers which a particular aircraft is supposed to carry may be reduced. On this note, passengers are adequately reminded and/or instructed via their emails and text messages of possible shifts in time. However, most passengers either due to lack of information or personal decisions often default these instructions and instead come claiming their rights t the detriment of the staff of the airline (Ability, 2022). Most often, a lot of passengers refuse to declare the contents of their luggage and while this could be as a result of personal decisions to flout the airline orders thus challenging the staff and management, other times, it is because such passengers have in their possession substances that are no allowed into the aircraft.

Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, Ibom Airlines do not allow in-flight meals and refreshment by passengers. This is because if such an act is permitted, it would give the passengers opportunity to remove their face masks and possibly cough peradventure when choked and sneeze. It is situations like this that aid the spread and contraction of the virus to other passengers in the aircraft thus endangering their health safety and security. So, it is in a bid to avoid such occurrence that the airline took such decision. However, a lot of complaints have been made by passengers of the airline in this regard. Funny enough, some of the complaints that are being received read that the airline is inconsiderate to the ‘stomach infrastructure’ of the passengers (Blessing, 2022).

Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, passengers of Ibom Airline are advised to make use of the internet in booking their flights through their website (https://www.ibomair.com). This is in a bid to decongest the ticket centres, avoid the clustering of passengers as well as avoid the spread of the Corona virus. The airline, has in it capacity utilized all strategies in ensuring that physical barriers are being created between its staff, management and the passengers and even though, this, on the long run, have helped a great deal in curbing the contraction and the spread of the virus, it has re-introduced Nigerian air travelers into a new travel pattern. While some passengers have easily gotten acquainted with the system, others keep making complaints on how inaccessibly difficult the airline has become (Nicholas Ikinwot, 2022).

Emphasizing on a collective term the challenges of the airline industry in Nigeria, Sylva & Amah (2021) stated that several factors have been attributed to the dismal performance of the airline industry of sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria. Some of these challenges range from limited market access and low level of connectivity, exorbitant fares and costs which most often skyrocket without proper consideration of the plight if the passengers, degraded airport infrastructure, low level of service quality, responsiveness, innovation, unhealthy government interference, and multiple taxes, inadequate access to funds, low level of air navigation assistance, ambiguous policy with little or no strategy and implementation, poor corporate governance, corruption, lack of regulation, low productivity, overstaffing and understaffing, and poor maintenance culture of aircrafts.

In a more detailed sense, Sylva and Amah (2021) continued by explaining that the infrastructural challenges of the domestic airline sector include poor quality of airport infrastructure, inadequate provision of power, inadequate number and small fleet sizes of aircrafts, lack of perimeter fencing of airports and poor technology. In addition, they noted that the substandard quality of key infrastructure in Nigeria’s airports poses a great challenge to both the domestic and international airline operations. For instance, some airports in Nigeria do not have modern landing aids such as adequate airfield lighting and instrument and system to allow planes land at night. In the same manner, some airports in Nigeria, according to (Phillips Consulting, 2015), lack basic infrastructure such as standard runway and terminal facilities in line with international standard. Going by the aforementioned, this, in turn, gravely affects the safety and security of both the passengers and the aircrafts in these airlines.

The issue of financial cost and exorbitant rate of air travel in Nigeria happens to be another incident that calls for deliberation. Xu & Dioumessy (2019) commented that the operational cost of African carriers is higher than most carriers in other parts of the world. In agreement with this, (Daramola and Fagbemi (2019) posit that most of the materials, equipment and aircraft spares used in Nigeria are imported and are paid for in foreign currencies. Also, a large proportion of the maintenance, repairs and overhaul activities are to be carried out in countries where there is availability of the technical know-how. This results in exorbitant expenditure for these airlines.. Consequently, public and government airlines in Nigeria earned over $ two billion annually on C-check and other airline maintenance activities abroad (Sylva & Amah, 2021). On the other hand, with the high cost of aviation fuel, which is about 20% more expensive in African countries, including Nigeria, when compared with other continents according to Xu & Dioumessy (2019), passengers find it difficult to travel by air and peradventure if cases of emergency where a passenger’s presence is needed promptly occurs, such an opportunity can be lost thus keeping the passenger mentally and even emotionally unsafe and insecure.

Ability and Isaiah (2022) revealed that a certain aircraft of Ibom airline got overfilled with fuel amidst the Covid-19 time. The passengers were delayed and their flight was rescheduled. A situation like this puts the lives of the passengers as well as the properties of the airline at risk thus giving the airline more reasons to work on its policy and regulatory system so as to ensure the safety and security of the industry.

Recommendations on how to respond to the specified issues and threats

The attitude of Nigerians when it comes to air travel calls for airline operators domiciled in Nigeria to be more vigilant, security conscious and safety minded in carrying out their operations. On the issue of passengers compromising the optimal service delivery of airlines by gifting or bribing airline staff and management in a bid to manoeuvre their way at the detriment of the airline, there should be the implementation of a ‘Zero-tips policy’ for the staff, management and passengers of Nigerian airlines and culprits should be penalised severely either by sacking (for staff and management) or by red-flagging (for passengers). This will aid the moral conduct and justification of every airline in Nigeria. It will also ensure sanity and discipline in the operational standards of airlines in the country.

Regarding passengers’ dishonesty, lack of transparency and inability to declare contents in their luggage, airlines in Nigeria should be more equipped with the adequate technological devices to scan and track objects and substances that are not allowed into the airplane but are at the disposal of passengers. When after reading out the travel rules and regulations to travelers through their tickets, mails and text messages, and some still went on to defaulting the, such passengers should be arrested and sued to a court of competent jurisdiction. This way, other passengers would learn and be properly guided. Also, in a bid to be more transparent in operations, Nigerian airlines should endeavour to include persons with disabilities in their operational procedures. Persons of this kind should be properly guided and attended to so as to ease them off the stress.

All meals and refreshment should be given to passengers before they board the plane and on no account should preferential treatment be given to anyone regardless of social, economic or political status or sanding in society. This will aid the curb of the spread of the corona virus as well as other germs and diseases that could occur in the course of coughing and sneezing when a passenger is being choked on air. Generally, eating while in the plane should be restricted in order not to allow distractions of any kind. The policy should be ‘No Meal Onboard Policy.’

Whether there is Covid-19 pandemic or there is not, airlines across Nigeria should make it part of their policy for passengers to observe social distancing. Direct contacts with airline personnel should be thoroughly avoided at all cost and passengers should spend a very limited time in the course of boarding at the departure hall to avoid loitering and crowding. Another essential point to note is that there is need for proper communication channel between passengers and the airlines. From the point of embarkation, to the point of disembarkation, airlines should build healthy communication channels through a standard and available customer service delivery among others with their passengers. This will help avoid unnecessary complaints from the passengers.

Conclusion

The report was structured into four different but coordinated subtopics that dealt with an explicit examination and analysis of the need for safety and security management not just in the tourism sector alone, but also in the Nigerian airline industry generally. While the first subtopic introduced the need for safety and security by humans in society, the second subtopic examined an overview of safety and security management in the tourism sector. The third subtopic emphasized on current and future key safety and security issues in the Nigerian Airline Industry amidst Covid-19 Pandemic: A case study of Ibom Air, while the fourth subtopic outlined recommendations on how to respond to the specified issues and threats encountered by the Nigerian airline industry amidst Covid-19 pandemic

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Oral Interview with Ability Blessing at Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo on 9th February, 2022.

Oral Interview with Isaiah Trust at Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo on 9th February, 2022.

Oral Interview with Ikinwot Nicholas Trust at Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo on 9th February, 2022.

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