Talking about regulation, I think Nigerian airlines are over regulated. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is doing a wonderful job on that. It is not easy; sometimes you don’t feel comfortable with the way they are doing it but they are have to do it. I think NCAA, the kind of regulation they bring to bear on Nigerian airlines cannot be compared to anything under the sun. even in advanced countries thet don’t do as much because they could take things for granted because they have a running system that has been consistent over time.
NCAA goes out of its way to hound airlines in Nigeria. For instance, we had a bird strike on our first day in Kano. When the pilot was going up the aircraft was struck by a bird and he discovered that the navigational aids were affected on the co-pilot’s side. In Air Peace it is zero tolerance to unsafe practices; otherwise he would have continued his flight to Abuja, but instead he made air return back to Kano. We sent our British engineers to Kano to rescue the aircraft. Then we sent another aircraft to Abuja to go and airlift the passengers.
Do you know that after the British engineers rectified it, NCAA insisted on being on the flight when we carried out a test flight? We wanted to do a test flight to ensure that the navigational aids were okay. After the bird hit the aircraft there were blood stains all over the place. They insisted they would be on the test flight to look at the parameters of the aircraft themselves. I was happy when I heard that.
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Making Nigeria come out of the doldrums there are so many things we have to do. When we say that this Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) does not favour us, it is not because we cannot compete. And it is not true that Nigerian airlines are sick. If other airlines are sick, Air Peace is not sick. Nigerian airlines are not sick. Air Peace is not sick. We are not indebted to anybody. every airline borrows money but what is important is how are you servicing your loans. So not every airline is sick. I disagree with the report that said that all Nigerian airlines are sick and unhealthy and badly run. No. we have a structure in Air Peace. And it is run according to international practices.
So when we cry that SATM does not favor us it means that it does not favour us at this stage; except a level playing field is created. This is not only in Nigeria, when Emirates was eroding the US market, the airlines in America cried out and their government did something about it and put policies that tried to stunt the spread of the Gulf airlines into America. That is how it is supposed to be. Bombardier, Canada aircraft manufacturer, came up with their new product, CS 300, which would have been competing vigorously with Boeing 737s, Boeing cried to their government and US came out with 300 percent import duty on the Bombardier aircraft type. This is in order to protect their own.
So we must try and protect our own in this country. If we don’t protect our own airlines they will continue to struggle so we need to protect Nigerian airlines. For example, these airlines in Africa accept loans at two t three percent; I get my loan at 27 percent from fidelity. At 27 percent interest rate, how do I compete with them? Their countries cannot give me more than one flight in a day because of their population. I cannot go to Ethiopia at all because there is no market there. But these airlines can afford to come to Nigeria five times a day; so we have to regulate the number of times they come in order to create room for our own airlines. No country does any blanket approval for whatever air transport treaty they sign. No country does that. So SAATM does not favour Nigerian airlines. Have we bordered to find out the landing charges these countries give to Nigerian airlines when they come into their country? They charge their airlines differently. In Ghana, AWA is not paying the same charges that we pay when we go to that country. So they can afford to crash their fares but we cannot because when we get into their country they over charge us.
There should not be unrestricted open skies. It has to be streamlined for Nigerian airlines to benefit from it. we have to regulate the number of times they come into our country. There should be the spirit of reciprocity,; not parasitic relationship. At the same time charges they give to Nigerian airlines must be discussed. It should be the same charges Nigeria should give them. Government should ask our airlines, how much are they charging you out there, so that when they come here we give them the same charges. That will make money for our government.
