By Olu Ohunayo
The committee
set up by Nigeria's aviation minister, Osita Chidoka, to look at charges, fares and other factors
militating against the development of the industry have submitted its report,
with the minister directing the agencies to ensure immediate implementation.
The committee
did a good job and brought to the fore some of the issues that have been raised
in the past by industry watchers which includes but not limited to the dubious
fuel surcharge hidden in our tickets by operators while also avoiding the tax
regime. Other recommendations among
others include the unnecessary retention of agency funds by operators while the
poor performance in quality, service and operations was hinged on poor capitalisation
and a need to urgently recapitalise the airlines.
I humbly
disagree on the issue of recapitalisation as a panacea to the problem of our
airlines. It will only ensure we once again progress in error and deceit, these
airlines in-conjunction with their bankers will prefer to see the airlines
limping than being taken to the theatre for surgical operations.
The bankers want to keep the window of loan
repayment open, in tandem with lawyers employed for the preparation of
documents by the airlines. They will only recapitalise the accounts of
Corporate Affairs Commission and the lawyers engaged to process the documents. Thereafter
the recapitalisation will be achieved.
Flashing back
to the twilight of the Obasanjo government, Chief Fani- Kayode was the minister of
aviation with a marching order to stop the concurrent air mishaps and unsafe
operations. He gave the same directive to all airlines to recapitalise based on
their operational certification, the deadline was May 30 2007, barely 24hours to
handing over to the new government.
The airlines
knowing the rudiments of presenting and processing documents got their legal
team to work and they all recapitalised and also effectively beat the deadline
set by the federal government.
Looking at
the list of airlines that recapitalised and satisfied the aspirations of the government
as it were, at that time, only Arik has increased in equipment and operations
while others have shrunk in size and operations or simply vanished or in coma.
So what has recapitalisation achieved?
The regulatory body recently issued AOC’s to Azman, Discovery, Hak and Air
Peace airlines using the archaic two minimum aircraft rule, these airlines with
the exception of Air Peace are either
grounded or struggling to overcome the vagaries
of operation. Air Peace airline the strongest fleet wise of the new entrants,
is walking with the crutches of the amnesty office time will tell if they will
be able to drop the crutches and walk with their two legs.
On the other
hand Medview airlines appears to be doing well with route expansion on the domestic
and international routes with an increasing fleet, they have also promised to
take the airline to the market which literally translates to ownership with
other Nigerians and willing investors.
It’s a good gesture that must come to fruition
which will serve as a tonic for other carriers and also help stimulate the Fly
Nigeria Act Project. The expansion and
fleet size of Medview airlines is nothing compared to the size of Arik Air
whose dominance of our skies is unpararelled in recent time.
Sadly, the
dominance has been used to benchmark foreign airlines crazy and exploitative
fares on the international route. How do you justify Arik Air charging N94, 000
one-way on the Accra –Abuja route, a flight of less than 45 minutes and N360,
000 on the Lagos- London route a flight of less than 7 hours, just to latch on the
Christmas season?
We need to
build at least two carriers to fly the flag and a third to compete well on the
domestic route; this will ginger competition, attract investors, expand
ownership and increase enplanement.
To achieve these
objectives we must abort the fanciful flight of recapitalisation and board the
fleet consolidation by regulation flight that will move minimum fleet from two
to ten. A stitch in time saves the industry from prolonged agony.
