Air freighting stakeholders operating on the Port Harcourt corridor have hinted on floating a cargo airline outside the zone to deal with perceived indiscriminate freight charges being experienced at the Port Harcourt International Airport.

The hint was given at a one day stakeholders’ summit in Port Harcourt, Rivers state where the common anger expressed was that the high airfreight charges make goods freighted through the Port Harcourt Airport come out overpriced.

Present at the summit were key players from public and private sector, academia, small businesses, and export-supporting institutions in the export value chain who all concurred that goods out of Port Harcourt were over charged.

Regulatory agencies of government in attendance however denied wrongdoing or responsibility for the operator disparity between what obtains at the Port Harcourt Airport and other places, blaming the situation on a mix of risk charges, aviation fuel being brought in from Lagos, status of Port Harcourt as a transient and not destination port and more.

Away from the endless lamentation, airfreight consultant and panelist at the summit, Omanake Mathew Clever, while further situating the problem showed freight exporters and operators what could be done to cut down the costs in Port Harcourt.

Clever who runs a freight consulting firm explained, “For operator variations, airlines can’t just bring in equipment and begin to do business without focusing on certain factors that actually contribute to the freight rate.

“For instance, if I am an operator and I want to bring a flight here, I will start by asking few questions; do I have the required tonnage that will help me break even within a certain period of time?

“The freight rate is higher here because most of the time, once they take a freight from a customer, they will need to go to where their transit is, so they build in that expense into the rate and that is operator variation.

“With Port Harcourt designated and recognized as a red zone, anybody coming in here knows he needs to prepare very well for any eventuality. All these are factors and many more that contribute to why air freighting seems to be very difficult for agencies in Port Harcourt.”

Going forward, Clever said, “One of the ways to make this place viable is to have collection centres where we have to aggregate cargos. When we know that weekly we can boast of certain amount of tonnages weekly, we can now say okay, we meet a consultant, because that’s what we do. We can take an aircraft.”

The broader resolution to tackle the situation emerged Thursday at the first ever ‘Export Breakfast Meeting’ held at the Port Harcourt City Chamber, presided over by Chinyere Nwoga who regretted that the Port Harcourt International Airport was not being maximized.

Mac-Kingsley Ikegwuru, Acting Head of Department, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Rivers State University, also explained why the Airport is expensive and further gave tips on remedies among suggestions from other experts.

Ofon Udofia, Convener and Chairman, Export Trade Group of the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Mines, and Agriculture (PHCCIMA), who doubles as Executive Secretary, Institute of Export Operations and Management, said time has come for action against discriminatory charges against the region must stop.

A fallout communique highlighted that the meeting examined solutions to barriers to non-oil exports from the Niger Delta, improved infrastructure and logistics which provoked the resolve for “Rivers State Government to float or partner a dedicated cargo airline to ensure direct, efficient, and predictable export flights from Port Harcourt.”

Other resolutions include developing strategic export warehouses across the state to support aggregation, processing, and packaging of goods closer to production clusters and sustained capacity building for consolidators who can aggregate products from numerous SMEs, enhance shipment volumes, and reduce individual freight costs.

They also called for financial incentives and pricing toward a unified freight rate comparable with other international airports across Nigeria and cost reduction measures including $50 rebate on freight charges for non-commercial exports, to encourage broader participation among small-scale exporters.

Other measure include policy and regulatory interventions, removal of “red flag” security classification, curriculum integration in varsities, mandatory certification for forwarding agents and stakeholder collaborations.