Aviation expert urges FG to brief Nigerians on management, funding of National carrier
The chief executive officer of African Aviation Services Limited, Chairman African Business Aviation Association (AfBAA) and former African Airlines Association, AFRAA secretary general, Nick Fadugba has urged the federal government to brief the Nigerian people on the new national carrier in terms of the management, funding, and the fleet, rather than doing it abroad.
Fadugba said the government needs to come home and explain to the whole nation the concept of the national carrier.
Speaking in an interview with Journalists on the sidelines of the 22nd League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents, LAAC seminar at the Sheraton Hotel Ikeja, Lagos, on Thursday July 19, Fadugba said he is more interested in how the national carrier would interface with all the other airlines in Nigeria.
He raised concern over the federal government ownership of three airlines.
Fadugba observed that this is the first time of seeing a government own three airlines.
He tasked the government to coordinate its airlines strategy in terms of moving forward.
“There are many questions that needs to be answered in terms of the management, the funding, the fleet. So I believe the government now need to brief the Nigerian people on the national carrier. Rather than doing it abroad we need to come home and explain to the whole nation what is the concept. More importantly I am interested in how does the national carrier interface with all the other airlines in Nigeria. Because remember that the government is the de facto owner of two other airlines: Arik and Aero. So this is the first time I have seen one government own three airlines. So the government needs to coordinate its airlines strategy in terms of moving forward,” Fadugba said.
He stated that Nigerian airlines can only get out of its weak fragmented state through cooperation and partnerships.
The chief executive officer of African Aviation Services Limited noted Nigerian is blessed with the biggest domestic aviation market on the Africa continent, bigger than South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopian and many other countries.
He observed that: “Yet we have not been able to harness this market for our own benefit. The beneficiaries are foreign airlines, our airline need to work together. If you have five aircraft, 10 aircraft, it is nothing in the world of aviation. We need a critical max. if you look Ethiopia, they have a 100 aircraft, that is one airline, and yet we have 10 airlines here with maybe five aircraft each. We need to work together otherwise the economics of the business are not in favour of the operators. They need to come together to scale up to get a critical max. They can work together in training, maintenance, in spare pooling, aircraft acquisitions. There are many areas African airlines and Nigerian airlines in particular can work together. So we need more cooperation in Nigeria among our airline brothers and sisters”.
On how to build a hub in Nigeria, Fadugba explained that the country has a choice between Abuja and Lagos, but pointed out that the economic hub is definitely Lagos because that is where the economic activity is, which generates air traffic.
In his words: “What we need to do is to completely and radically improve the infrastructure at Murtala airport. It is a great airport but it is not coping with the current challenges of growth. There are many things which are wrong with the airport right now in terms of infrastructure, if I had my way I will build a completely new one but maybe we can’t afford it. therefore when we talk about restructuring, we have spent a lot of money over the past five or 10 years on restructuring airports and I cant really see meaningful, tangible benefits. There have been improvements but not in a meaningful way and if Nigeria is to move forward, if we are to build and effective hub, to improve connectivity, then we need to radically improve the infrastructure of our airports in Nigeria”.
He advised the government and the ministry of aviation to sit down and really think carefully on what they want to do with Arik and Aero, because they have used public fund to maintain the airlines.
Fadugba explained further that the government owns 60 percent of Arik and Aero, stressing that with the creation of a national carrier, there is a bit of contradiction on all that.
According to him, we need to as a matter of urgency resolve what is happening to Arik. If you want to sell it to investors please go ahead and do it. Aero the same thing, I would love to see the three airlines working together, I think that will be a good strategy for Nigeria.
He also applauded the federal government on the removal VAT for the aviation industry, saying it is long overdue as nobody around the world imposes VAT on air ticket.
Dana Air partners Project Pink Blue to conduct free prostate cancer screening for 3,000 men
Nigerian tourism: NATOP outlines way forward
Med-View Airline to relaunch Yola, Maiduguri flights Dec. 18, increases Lagos-Abuja flights
NCAA warns pilots, airlines against thunder storms