The Managing Director of Med-View Airlines, Alhaji Muneer Bankole has
urged the Nigeria airline operators that have 17 aircraft, five aircraft and others to put heads together and discuss with a good mind, open heart and let people know who is speaking so that Nigeria can chart a new way forward.
Bankole observed that there is no way Nigeria’s domestic airlines can compete with any foreign airline in this kind of operating environment.
Bankole noted that the environment foreign airlines are operating in is not the same environment the domestic airlines are operating in the country.
Speaking in an interview during the 27th annual League of Airport and Aviation Correspondent, LAAC conference at Providence Hotel in Lagos, with the theme: Aviation industry, changinging times changing strategies, Bankole explained that the environment domestic airlines are operating here determines for then anywhere they want to go to lay it on the table.
He stated that he has gone to precisely 17 countries to do registration under the Bilateral Sir Services Agreement, BASA without any hitch.
Commenting on how the Nigerian aviation industry can cope with the changing times in the sector, Med-View boss stated that: “We have a situation in our hands. As an aviator, I share in today’s event at a critical time in the aviation industry. 40 years ago, I worked with this industry flying all over the world and I said to myself, ‘I must share the pain to visit you and be part of you”.
Bankole decried the development in the industry in the past months to the extreme challenge of their foreign partners like travel agencies and other stakeholders where it was difficult to buy a ticket, not even economy or business class travelling out of Lagos to any destination.
According to him, “this is because the foreign carriers put themselves together as a force, working with the Internationl Air Transport Association, IATA representatives, putting a lot of challenges to the industry, which has no bearing on anybody; take it or leave it. We should ask ourselves, how did we get here?
You buy tickets locally, you run the business locally and you have a special window for customers who want to pay in dollars. Business should be flowing that way.
Secondly, you talk of Nigeria Air, all the stories that came until it finally came out was a ruse. It is sad. Well, it is still on its way”.
On the issue of BASA, Bankole explained further that: ” Internationally I had seven, regionally, I had seven. I had an average of 14. 14 means I was in Jeddah, Sierra Leone, Dubai, UK, and applied to Portugal. When I was in the UK, American people came to meet me and asked me when are you coming? I divided the West Coast into two. The Anglophone and the Francophone and I touched all the taps to let them know that those were the things we were doing for them to bring them to Lagos and from Lagos, they will come and buy and take them back home. Lagos used to be their London.
Those were the experiences I brought to the market and I decided in late 2005. I have grown in this industry. Whatever any airline or airlines are eating today is food made by some of us.
Today, we can be happy in line with this development, you guys need to cooperate, synergise.”
Commenting on the possibility of changing the narration in the industry, Med-View boss said things can still change for the better, adding that for that change to come, the industry has to go to the basis.
He said What the industry need is to call stakeholders to the table to chart a path for the industry by removing selfish interests or selfish mindsets and then the stakeholders can begin to identify if it is still possible .
On Whether the government has been protecting the indigenous airlines with the various BASA arrangements it is signing with various countries, Bankole emphasized that: “We are making a grave mistake. I will tell you honestly that all those who run into airlines telling people that BASA is one-sided, it is absolutely not correct. The reciprocity that we are talking about is nothing. I visited London, Virgin came up and everybody wanted to fly to Nigeria because this is the market. How many of our people want to go there? I repeat, I don’t know and I say it openly; we went there. There are four airports in the UK and they are Heathrow, Gatwick, London City Airport, and Stansted Airports.
“We asked them, where do you want Med-View to fly? I did a study and I chose Gatwick. They are calling on Med-View to come back. The reason they are calling us to come back is because we opened up the business for the world to see and Nigerians were going and coming. The airport was nothing to write home about then and that is BASA for you. We are not going to say that somebody has 15 frequencies.
Nobody has said to us that we should not come, but you must meet their requirements. Nigerian airlines should come together”.
