Abstract:
The study examined A Comparative Analysis of the Operations and Performance of Aviation Cargo Handling Companies in Nigeria. The study focuses on the examination of the level of cargo handling capacity utilizations at the airport between 2015 and 2018, determination of the levels of inputs supplied as well as their respective output levels of the cargo handling services, determination of the benchmark cargo handling firm in the industry and analysis of the total market shares of each handling company between 2015 and 2018. The research work majors on SKYWAY AVIATION HANDLING COMPANY LIMITED (SAHCOL) AND NIGERIAN AVIATION HANDLING COMPANY (NAHCo) in Muritala Muhammed International Airport Lagos. The research work employs the use of secondary data sources from SAHCOL and NAHCo. The study shows that the two handling companies have optimally utilized their capacities to get the best outcome. The study also shows that SAHCOL is seen to have a lower average number of labour with 528 (47.40%) workers compared to that of NAHCo who has 585 (52.60%) workers. From the facility part, SAHCOL has a larger capacity of 22,510 (Square meters) while that of NAHCo is 21,676.02 (Square meters). NAHCo has a larger cargo handling capacity with respect to equipment compared to SAHCOL, NAHCo has equipment that could handle 148,000Kgs of cargo per day (148 tons) while that of SAHCOL is 111,000Kgs (111 tons) of cargo per day and with these inputs supplied by the companies, NAHCo has a larger share of revenue with about 56.73% while SAHCOL has 43.27% of the revenue. In the same vein, NAHCo handled about 58% of cargoes while SAHCOL handles 42% of cargoes. With the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), the study reveals that SAHCOL is the benchmark cargo handling industry as it has a higher level of efficiency. It thus recommends that there should be a well-organized data bank stored by cargo handling companies for the purpose of more research and decision making. The government of Nigeria should see to it that exportations are equal to importations so that our economy is balanced and that there should be adequate equipment and facilities for the handling of cargoes should there be trade balance in the country in the nearest future.
