History
Civil Aviation in Nigeria is a child of very humble beginnings, a spin-off of the British Colonial rule. But above all else, it is a product of a mere accident of history dating back to 1925 in the unlikeliest of places - the ancient, walled city of Kano.
Sometime in July of that year the Northern city was gripped by a tense stand-off between the residents and the colonial government officials.
The British government at the time was maintaining an active Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Khartoum, Sudan. On sensing the trouble in Kano, London swiftly signalled the commanding officer of the Khartoum RAF Squadron, instructing him to fly to the Northern Nigerian city and report on the situation. Flying a Bristol fighter, the pilot made a breath- taking but safe landing on the horse race course in Kano, thus going down in history as the first recorded aviation activity in Nigeria.
Without air routes, maps or radio communications the flight was regarded as "a particularly hazardous operation". So alarmed were officials that an idea was mooted that if Khartoum-Kano was ever to be made an air routes it would be necessary to have emergency landing grounds every 20 miles of the way.
Subsequent flights were to be originated from Cairo, Egypt where the RAF also had a base. The landings were so spectacular that one Kano resident was moved to paint the scene (the water colour picture was later acquired by the government). The RAF operations were later to become an annual event, with frequency and route extended to cover Maiduguri.
The earliest known commercial aviation activity in Nigeria is credited to one gentle man, "Bud" Carpenter, who owned the earliest type of the Light aircraft, de Havilland Moth. Records show that he frequently undertook high-risk flights between Kano and Lagos, using the rail tracks as his guide and piling up extra distance in the process.
In the early 1930s, an enterprising pilot carried a few fare-paying passengers in a sea-plane between Lagos and Warri. With the continuation of the annual RPLF flights, aviation activities in Nigeria became quite considerable, creating the need for aerodromes.
Consequently, a representative of the Air Ministry in London visited Nigeria to inspect what could then be appropriately described as "landing grounds". Sites were selected at Maiduguri, Oshogbo, Lagos, Minna, Kano and Kaduna.
Wing Commander E. H. Coleman, one of the earliest observers of the evolution of civil aviation in Nigeria described the aerodromes thus:
It must be remembered, however that what was called an aerodrome in those days would by no means meet requirements for even some of the small aeroplanes of' modern times. In the early days it was considered necessary to construct several runways oriented in varying directions to avoid cross wind landings and take-offs, as the older type of tail-wheel aircraft was more prone to swing than the modern nose wheel types.
In 1935, the operations of the RAF were replaced by those of the Imperial Airways that flew regular airmail and passengers from London to Nigeria. These services thus pioneered commercial international operations in Nigeria, although it was not until 1936 that commercial aviation actually came to Nigeria. The Imperial Airways, the forerunner of the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), operated large four engined aeroplanes, known as the Hannibal class or the Handley, on the Nile route from Cairo to Kisumu, Uganda. Towards the end of 1936, a once weekly service was introduced and another route, Khartoum - Kano - Lagos, flight, which took seven days, was operated with a relatively small four-engined aircraft De Havilland 86. (One of the DH 86's well-known passengers were Sir Bernard Bourdillon who flew on the first ever commercial flight from Lagos).
In its early days, commercial aviation was not without a comic side to it. For example, there was an incident in Khartoum where one of the engine covers of a DH-86 was found to be missing shortly before departure. After a frantic search it was found to have been borrowed by a resident of a house near the aerodrome. He had hammered it flat for the purpose of using it as a roof. Undaunted, engineers retrieved the engine cover, hammered it back into shape and refitted it onto the engine. After a slight delay the aircraft left for Kano and Lagos with passengers and mails.
In Nigeria early Pilots were brave and had to weather the harsh harmattan and rainy conditions. But there was one peculiar emergency landing near Maiduguri in 1937. Engineers were promptly despatched from Kano. They arrived a day later on horseback with their tool kits. After some repairs the aircraft was flown out and again placed in service: Records show that it usually took a whole day to fly from Kano to Lagos in a DH8, considering its early technology and en-route refuelling stops.
As aviation activity grew, the need for more aerodromes became imperative. Initially, 24 more aerodromes were being planned to link the entire country; two were to be constructed yearly. But the outbreak of the Second World War in 1940 compelled the colonial authorities to move more rapidly. Within months all the aerodromes planned were completed. By the end of 1940 Lagos had been converted into a strategic base from where aircraft were being ferried to Middle East and India as part of the war effort. At the height of the war as many as 100 aircraft were being ferried daily. The RAF was also being assisted by the US Air Force, which was now tapping into the strategic importance of Nigeria.
When the war ended in 1945 civil aviation regained its prime place in Nigeria with the services of both the BOAC (via the West Coast), and the old Imperial Airways (via the Nile and Khartoum). They also introduced a range of aircraft such as Dove, DC-3, Tudor; Skymaster, York and later Comet and Britannia. BOAC's services were to be extended to the whole of West African colonies.
Such was the state of aviation in Nigeria during the post war period.
Having nurtured aviation up to that point, the colonial government realised the need for a regional feeder airline to compliment the services of the BOAC. Consequently in May 1946 the King of England issued a court edict establishing the West African Air Transport Authority (WAATA) consisting of respective governors of Nigeria, Gold Coast (Ghana), Sierra Leone and the Gambia, with the governor of Nigeria as the President. The edict also authorised the formation of the West African Airways Corporation (WAAC). The Transport Authority was to supervise the WAAC as well as all other aviation matters in the region.
WAAC was charged to "Develop air services in and between West African territories". The airline began services with a six-seater De Havilland Dove aircraft. Its Nigerian domestic services were operated with the Dove while the West Coast services were operated with Bristol Wayfarers. The control and administration of Civil Aviation were vested in the Directorates of Public Works of these countries who applied United Kingdom Colonial Air Navigator orders as their legislative authority.
On attaining independence in 1957 Ghana pulled out of the airline company, and in August 1958 the Nigerian government in partnership with BOAC and Elder Dempster lines formed the West African Airways Corporation (Nigeria) limited (which would later metamophorsise into today's Nigeria Airways). This single, historic move heralded the genesis of the airline industry in Nigeria.
