Though the permanent secretary recently deployed to the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Dr Ibrahim Abubakar Kana, has denied saying he has the president’s mandate to work with the minister, Festus Keyamo to package a national carrier for the country, some key players who seem to be in support of having the new national carrier have called on the government to go ahead with the project.
Some of the key players premised their supports for the national carrier project on the fact that Nigeria with its huge population cannot afford to stay without such an essential service.
Lending his voice to support the national carrier project was the Managing Director of Belujane Konsult and a former image maker of the now defunctNigeria Airways, Mr Chris Abu Aligbe who welcome the new move.
According to Aligbe, “a country of 200 million people cannot stay without major airlines. Whether they are privately owned, whether they are national flag carriers, whether they are ordinary flag carriers or national flag carriers where government has some equity.
“Whichever, our country is large enough that it can really have about three formidable airlines in the global space. But a situation where we see we don’t have airline of note is something very much uncalled for. And to think that there are some people who still believe that we should not do it, government should not do it.
“Some people say they should create a level playing field. Nobody has mentioned the content of their level playing field. Government has done so many things for the airline sector, they have removed their taxes, duties on aircraft and spare parts”.
Aligbe, while using the occasion to challenge the opponents of the national carrier project declared: “Those who are arguing against a national flag carrier or whatever, are arguing against Nigerians. That position is sometimes Nigerian, millions of Nigerians who engage in air travel.
Because they are insisting that Nigerians should suffer. You fly point to point, you get to the other point, you take out your baggage, you start looking for another airline to fly. You face, apart from difficulties, moving from one point to the other. Even if it is the same airport, you now have to buy another ticket.
“This is the situation. And so, any reasonable person who knows about air travel cannot support a situation where Nigerians cannot have the best opportunities to travel seamlessly to their destinations, which is the present situation. And so, I applaud the President’s decision, directive.
It is a directive in the right direction. And I hope, sincerely hope, that this will be implemented to the point. For so many years, we have talked about this, about having a major national carrier.
And people will fight against it. They will stand up for one reason or the other. There are so many reasons they have given. Some people say it is moribund. It never happens again. Other countries have dropped it. Give one example. They cannot give. If you take the Middle East airlines. Rwanda, South Asia, North America. Tanzania, this thing. Uganda, this thing. Yes. So, they are all there. So, they can no longer talk.
Aligbe equally used the opportunity to speak about the Cape Town Convention Practice Directions signed by a Nigerian court on behalf of Nigeria last year, declaring that the signing of the Cape Town Convention has rescued the industry from the actions of two operators that “brought us back and for seven years or so kept the industry spellbound.”
His words: “And without us moving forward, costing so much financial burden on Nigerian airlines. They have done this and yet, I am not saying that the practice direction should bring in an immediate gain because it will take some time for them to disengage and begin to go into leases. I am not saying it’s quick, like coffee, Nescafe that you put in the cup and start drinking immediately. No. But the fact of the matter is that the airlines that are operating have left us with not much hope in terms of the progress the country is making in the airline sub-sector. They need assistance, they need some help, but the fact of the matter is that they have not shown that we can move forward. They have not demonstrated capacity. And when you say capacity, people think of the number of aircraft.
“It’s not the number of aircraft. Capacity in the industry is multidimensional. Even managerial capacity, and managerial competence are critical to it because even if you have five aircraft, ten aircraft, the way you manage those aircraft and keep to schedule and everything is enough to show that you are on the incline. After all, Ibom Air does not have too many aircraft, but Nigerians believe that so far so good, it is better managed.
“Yes, yes, it’s true. Overland is a niche carrier, but it has stayed firm on the niche, showing signs of grappling with the challenge of managing an airline. The new airline on the block, ValueJet, is still showing signs. But these are small carriers, these are domestic carriers. They’ve not even become major regional carriers because it is when you step out of the country to operate regionally or internationally, that’s when we know whether you are really an airline of note. Today, I have said it, we don’t have an airline of note.
“Nigerians cannot stand up and fly any of the airlines to various destinations seamlessly. All that we now have is a point-to-point operator, and that is sad because we are in the dark ages of airline operation. And so, it’s clear to Nigerians, it’s clear to everybody that we are not there.
Our country’s air travellers, Nigerian air travellers, cannot but fly other airlines that offer them a seamless travel experience. Not that they don’t want to fly Nigerian carriers, but if they cannot get what they are looking for, they have to go to where they can get it. Today, Nigerians will fly to destinations via Kigali with Rwandair.
They will fly via AWA. Not that AWA goes outside Nigeria, outside Ghana. But AWA has 10 codeshare partners that include world-class airlines, British Airways, Air France, Emirates, all those things.
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