Measures to Boost Airline Operations —Experts

-By Adeniyi Onifade

Experts in the aviation industry have lent their voices on how airline operations can be improved to ensure optimal performance.

Top among their submissions was the need to improve funding and palliatives to the sector amidst the Covid-19 pandemic which has affected the sector badly.

They described as grossly inadequate the N5billion proposed as COVID -19 Intervention Fund for airlines and other key service providers in the industry.

They admitted that although government meant well for players in the sector, the N4 billion announced by Aviation Minister, Captain Hadi Sirika as intervention to indigenous carriers and another N1 billion for other businesses in the sector was enough indication that the sector may not recover early enough.

Recalled that the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika announced the intervention at the three-day Public Hearing hosted by the Senate Committee on Aviation recently where he said the criteria for the disbursement of the funds were underway.
Worried over the development, President, Aviation Safety Roundtable Initiative (ASRTI), Gbenga Olowo, expressed disappointment at the government for approving a paltry N4 billion as intervention fund for the airline industry.

He said such a move by the government was not only insensitive but an after-thought at a time indigenous carriers were grappling with about N360 billion loss.

Olowo said; ”Mr President and Minister Hadi Sirika, thank you for the palliative. Domestic airlines alone are owing about N22 billion to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Domestic carriers incurred over N360 billion loss. This is as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reasonable countries intervened in their aviation industries in the second or third month. This is the eighth month and Nigeria is just responding.

”I think the government should just leave us to die, then we will know Nigeria has no aviation industry. N4billion palliative for the aviation industry is very insensitive. I condemn it totally.

”The airline industry is not made up of aeroplanes alone; there are allied services, people that produce onboard service are part of it; there are those who produce distribution, which we call sales and marketing, these are now outsourced and it is all part of the aviation industry.

“This is without forgetting handling companies, they are all part of aviation. So how do you want to share N4billion among them?”

On his part Chairman West Link Airline, Captain Ibrahim Mshelia who lauded the Federal Government for the gesture appealed for an upward review to about a trillion naira.

“If you look at the contribution aviation does for the country and the effects of the pandemic itself, it hit aviation more than anyone else and I would only plead that the government should make a rethink and look at it because there is no economy that would grow in this modern time without aviation.”

Captain Mshelia stressed that the Minister needs to do more in convincing the Federal Executive Council of the genuineness of airlines’ cause.

He said: “If we don’t take time to look at it critically and support aviation, we stand the risk of having our airlines eliminated one by one and in reality, we are suffering, really suffering.”

In suggesting the N1trillion bailout, Captain Mshelia listed areas where funds were needed urgently by airlines including aircraft maintenance, training and retraining, spare parts, Jet A1.

Head of Research, Zenith Travels, Olumide Ohunayo said the bailout should be no less than N100 billion.

He argued that airlines in other countries are already accessing the second tranche of bailout which includes a reduction of service charges to about 50 percent which is currently ongoing in various parts of Europe.

Ohunayo said,” Sincerely, I think that N4billion for bailout is grossly inadequate and the timing is a bit too late for me.
On what the funds should be, he said: ”I don’t think anything less than N100b is too big. It is not like you’re giving them this money free, it will be a loan and they will payback. If you’re given them free, I’d say yes it’s okay but you are not, so bring out the conditions; let’s see how the conditions favour them or are we waiting for new airlines to come and join them?

“You cannot do it for airlines who are dead or who are just coming into airlines, without an Air Operators‘ Certificates. For me, this should be strictly for the scheduled operators.”

Consequently, it was reported that chairman Senate Committee on Aviation, Smart Adeyemi informed the minister that its proposed N5billion COVID-19 intervention fund was inadequate and unacceptable as it will not be enough to save jobs in the industry or keep aircraft in the air.
Poor maintenance culture, leadership key behind retarded growth.

The local aviation industry has been attributed to having many factors that have kept its growth retarded and on-ground for so long; insinuating that it technically lacks the maintenance culture.

Nigeria’s aviation sector is an offshoot of the larger stuttering economy that has been badly hit by the Covid-19 as the economy is set to be heading for another recession, after exiting one in 2017.

The National Bureau of Statistics had recently announced inflation to have reach a four year high of 14.23% with high cost of transport and food prices being major contributors.

Also, the capacity and understanding for the complexity of modern commercial air travel seems to be lacking in the operations, resulting to a negative impression for investors and consumers.

So, with a weak economic policy and poor funding converge, the output is a hostile operating environment where no airline whether new or old can stand the test of time.

So far, Nigeria has produced about nine aviation ministers in 15 years, and with the emergence of a thorough-bred aviator at the helm of affairs, expectations are high that the aviation industry would take a turn for the better with Capt. Hadi Sirika, the Aviation Minister, at the helm of affairs.

Some stakeholders remain optimistic that there is a ray of hope for the industry and operators, if the newly constituted executives of aviation operators in the country, it would be more strategic in their demands and focused on perennial difficulties like the high cost of operations, regulatory support against aero politics, and building travellers’ confidence.