A fortnight ago Medview Airline kicked off its operation from Lagos to London. The CEO of the airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole spoke to selected journalists in London after the inaugural flight and x-rayed the industry and the chances of the airline in the competitive route. Chinedu Eze was there.
What is your view of your first flight operation to London?
We will first have to appreciate God Almighty because it is not by anybody’s design. When you want to commence a project you put so many things in place and God takes control of everything. The inaugural flight was successful, we left right on schedule and we arrived safely on schedule. The time we came in was right on our schedule time. So we have been putting it in our project that whatever thing we are doing in terms of getting a total assurance of your business relationship you must maintain zero tolerance on your reliability and your schedule operation.
That give confidence to the travelling public, and that is what we have been doing in domestic services and that is what we are doing in Accra, Ghana and it has helped us. People like to say we are not doing too much in advert; that is absolutely correct and the reason is not farfetched. When you go into the real business of this aviation, we need to appreciate one thing, all we have done and all we have been doing, it has been what we are blessed by God, that we are doing from childhood. We have not done anything except this business, so He has given us so much comfort, so much knowledge, so much to appreciate for. I was sitting here and my mind was just inside all those aircraft, identifying their whereabouts.
That is what we have been dealing with over the years, so we assure every one of us we want to maintain that standard. On the meal, I think it was perfect, this is the first time we are serving really local meal in international flights, and you know some of these businesses are outsourced. Half of the things put into that aircraft, the only one that is our own, I am telling you honestly is that aircraft, which we own which has its own position there. That aircraft we brought has a total maximum takeoff weight of 187,000 tons, but without passengers and cargo, it has its own operating weight of about 92,000 tons. That machine as it stays if you weigh it that is what you are going to get. But when you start bringing everybody inside it will give you what we call a payload. What gives you the total of what is going to enter the aircraft? You have your fuel, you have everything and you put everything into it before you start talking of mass takeoff weight.
So all these things you will find in that aircraft are perfect. I repeat they are perfect. It makes it easy for us to tell you how much fuel we are going to burn out of Nigeria to UK, out of UK to Nigeria. All these things put in place you will have what is called allowable weight that enables us to put more cargo. And that is the dream for our revenue generation. You move it gradually and we continue to go, it was a wonderful operation; nice one for the beginning.
Don’t forget that we didn’t do much of publicity. When you want to go on a venture you start making noise, start doing publicity; you give the window to your opponent to start bringing insinuations because Nigerian aviation community is riven with animosity by people in the past. So, out there when you are going to do something they mock you, saying another Nigerian airline, are they serious? So you let the thing play by itself. So it is better you simplify your activities with humility and tolerance; let things play out, in the next couple of months come over here you will see surprises in our operation.
What should air travelers expect from you in the coming years as far as this route is concerned?
I will show one of the secrets to you. The beauty of it here is that I made mention of one particular point, on-time service. If you understand the basis of this business, you will have value for time and people will continue to appreciate you; that is the secret of the game. Because if you say I am going to Lagos-London, you have a business in Abuja by 12 o’clock, your first mind will be to leave your house at 8 o’clock to get to Abuja at 9 am, to get to town at 9.30, 10 am. That gives you the planning to go and when you get to the airport at 8 am after putting all things in place you did not depart Lagos until 10 am, 11 am, you will get frustrated. Your mind, your brain everything starts changing immediately.
But when you see a business outfit that promises you 8 am and left at 8 am, then you begin to tell yourself that these are reliable people, responsible people; so you start gaining confidence in the minds of people and you will start seeing that a lot of people will start turning into your business and that is what you will see very soon.
I want you to review the Lagos-London route looking at the airlines that are operating, what do you see in terms of competition?
I have flown many airlines and I can tell you the services that are obtainable. I have flown, not too conversant with them but I am a good member of British Airways, I have flown Virgin Atlantic, Arik Air, Air France, Lufthansa, KLM and a couple of others. There is one thing you have to realize, in the Medview flight coming to London, the taste of what was given to every passenger has a flavor of Nigerian content, you can’t find it in any other airline. No airline will give you ewedu and when you go inside any aircraft you have mono-care, vegetable, and you understand the value African people place on vegetable. We have egusi soup there, we have eforiro there, we give you snail, though that is just complimentary and you have time at interval to have something to eat. And one thing again, the people you are seeing who are the crew, they are 99 per cent Nigerians. That gives you an insight, 80 per cent of those people are Igbo, those girls you find on my flight. 80 per cent of them are Igbo because that is the group that operated this flight. It doesn’t matter where you come from these are Nigerians.
The culture of knowing that this person is from my place bring oneness and you noticed that when you are taking off there was a communication in Yoruba, after the Captain has spoken, somebody made a statement in Yoruba to give an insight for those who probably are taking off from the point, who probably may not understand what the Captain has said in English. I will be honest to you; this is just the beginning and we hope that it will be better than this.
What other special services do you think you can provide your Nigerian passengers as they look forward to the service of another indigenous carrier on the route?
I want to make it very clear in your mind, it does not matter who runs the airline business, what matters is what you know or what you plan to put inside. Lagos-Gatwick is six hours 15 minutes, that means you can sleep at home up to 7 am in the morning, for you to come into the airport by 9 am, for you to check in and board Medview Airline and depart at 11 am and get to Heathrow at 5 pm, you can see the convenience. It is against other odds for some of the European airlines apart from three who have the same designation that can fly direct from any of these airports to Nigerian destination. For the other European carriers you need to pass through their home base. So imagine you are going to Lagos, you fly somewhere three, four hours, you fly somewhere six, seven hours before you connect that flight again to your own destination for another six, seven hours. You know the hassles that go when transiting; yet you will still have to wait for three, four or five hours for connecting flight.
Put all these together, there is no way from your home that it will be possible for you to leave at 7 am and think of boarding a flight at 9 am and get to your destination. So this is the difference. For us, we take advantage of that to let the Nigerians and the travelling public realise that the best way for you to fly is to have a direct flight that gives you more comfort and convenience; that you cannot take away from us, that is number one. And to tell you four flights weekly will be more convenient for us to admit than anybody coming to Europe for weekend can fly on Friday. Take your weekend and take two days to do your business; you get out of here on Wednesday you get back home, you are good to go as you are in Nigeria for the same week. The stress is not there, that is what we are taking away from people to take you from one point to another within the shortest possible time; and that is the game.
Most of the airlines flying the Lagos-London route operate daily flights, yours is four times weekly when do you want to go daily?
To be honest to you has given us a request to do daily flights, we said no. And I will tell you why. What are we marketing? Don’t forget this is a winter period; most European people at this time don’t fly. Most businesses at this winter go slow. That is why most of them at this period, between the period of end of October which is the beginning of winter to March a lot of European people are off on holiday and a lot of European people shut down businesses because of the nature of this weather. So aircraft are available in many part of Europe looking of market from other part of Europe that are not affected with this winter period to lease aircraft even at a reduced rate so that they will be able to do less and make small money to keep the aircraft busy. This is unlike summer when most them want to chill to other parts of Europe that are not affected with this winter period.
I want us to look at the Nigerian aviation industry. Some professionals, including you, in the past few years have been craving for the appointment of aviation professional as a Minister. For the first time in 16 years or more we are having a pilot as Aviation Minister, what are your expectations from the new Minister and secondly what policies that are presently unfavourable to indigenous carriers that you want the Minister to change?
Let’s wish ourselves the best of luck. It does not matter the profession that person is doing in the aviation industry. He might be a marketer, a pilot, a cargo operator; he might be anything. It is what that person has in mind to offer to this country that is important. What I mean by saying this is that he has a stint in aviation; he is a pilot; that does not drive the cause of the delivery of the service. What drives every business is the commitment of every soul that you want to do to your country. We have had in Nigeria when pilots were made chief executives, pilots were made directors, they never did anything better, they did not deliver. So it does not matter the title or the profession: what is important is what they can do. And I pray for the new Minister, the distinguished Senator who has been appointed as the Minister of state for aviation to see it from a different angle that the aviation industry is going down the drain and a lot needs to be done.
One of the main challenges we have in Nigerian aviation is that we have said over time that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) must have their autonomy. All over the world I have gone, I have travelled to 17 countries in the cause of designating this airline. We have been to Singapore. Medview is in Singapore. If you go to Singapore you will find Medview in the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) there. If you go to Dubai we have it, three frequencies, if you go Jeddah, we have approval for four frequencies. As I am talking to you, Kehinde is in Dakar, Senegal and Liberia has given us approval; we are in Freetown. When I travel to these countries to present Medview; to do the bilateral under the new designation, we don’t go to Ministry; we go to the CAA that is what obtains everywhere in the world. I have witnessed that; not that anybody told me. Here is this UK where we got approval, I have never seen the Ministry of Transport, I don’t know their Minister. I reported at the CAA, I presented our documentation. They needed a note of authorization from your government through the foreign affairs.
Our Ministry of Transport will only write to their Ministry of Foreign Affairs; that is the bus stop The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will convey it to the embassy of that country through diplomatic channel, to their Nigerian embassy in the that country and it will be delivered. The airline will come and start the processes to send your documents. Then if you meet their requirement you get your Flight Operator Certificate (FOC). So these are the few things that we will need to eradicate first, and that is why I keep on telling people that when we talk about issues on aviation we are going backwards. Let us start from what is obtainable in the world today. CAA has the full authority of each country to regulate aviation all over the world and that is what the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has stated and that is why we have ICAO conference. The last one they did two years ago was in Indonesia. So if you look at all these countries, no matter how small that country is, it is the CAA that is charge of aviation.
Airlines have been complaining of multiple charges by aviation agencies. In your view, what should be the solution to that problem so that both the agencies and the airlines will reach a compromise?
There has been a conference; there has been a committee; statements have been made about this over years. I will tell you that some countries today don’t need any landing charges because their indigenous carriers are being supported by their government, they go out for business, they come back home, no charges. Because that is the only thing the government can offer to support the airlines. Let’s go back to history, who built the airport and which fund did they use in building the airport? It is our tax money. And who are we carrying? We carry the nationals of Nigeria. We have invested money in buying aircraft, invested money in putting things in place. We are like a supporting corporate entity that provides services to citizens of our country.
We pay a lot of charges. We pay the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) over flight charges; we pay landing charges, and we pay VAT, for what? So for me we pay 5 per cent to NCAA, which is being shared by four agencies, including the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB); we pay to NAMA, we pay to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), we pay Passenger Service Charge (PSC) and they collect TSC, we pay VAT. These are things that we need to come together as one body and reach agreement. The government needs to change all these old colonial ideas. Sometimes we ask them why are we collecting all these money and where are the monies going? They are unaccounted for.
Until the government realises that it is not business as usual it will not change. You have to provide the services you collected money for. This is because if I pay you money for a service you should give me that service. Most of these government agencies are being run with the same ideas. The money they are not directed to the same place where those services should be improved upon. Some of our runways, our airports, some of our facilities are obsolete.
An insurance marketing executive of a major international insurance company said the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) is responsible for the high premium airlines pay for insurance by insisting that every insurance placement must go through local insurance who do not have the capacity to carry the risk; so invariably it is still foreign insurance firms that will carry the risks. What do you think the airlines should do over this?
Don’t forget that insurance policies, premium, ratings, differs from country to country. When a country’s policy is rated high in terms of safety they believe those infrastructures are in place, they believe those regulatory policies are enforceable, they believe that those people who are in authority are doing the right thing. So they feel safer, so the perception they have about Nigeria till today is that we are still on the high risk. So for you to play the ball you need to pay more if you want me to insure your aircraft in this type of environment. You will be surprised if you go to Cape Verde and find out that the premium they are paying is one third of what we are paying in Nigeria. You will be surprised in some of these European countries, some of them have 14 aircraft what Medview is paying almost double what those people are paying, yes they will tell you the risk element. Because some of the regulatory policies are there in the books, some of them are not enforceable. When they want to enforce them, somebody somewhere will give a directive from one corridor of power and the whole world is seeing what is happening.
Sometime ago you said Medview Airline will be enlisted in the Nigerian Stock Exchange, how far have you gone in that process? And having in mind that the federal government has a policy to re-establish a national carrier, definitely the game will be tightened with the coming of a national carrier?
I will not hide it from you, let me tell you; it is no more a secret, stock exchange listing management came to me, they were with me in my office a couple of weeks before I came here. And I want you to remember my word, some airlines are going for it; they are coming to us. I don’t want to pre-empt anything, by the middle of next year you will get the breaking news, it is already in process and on the issue of national carrier, we have made a statement, which is not a secret. I was in invited by the committee, I was to give them 15 minutes to talk; my speech was one hour, thirty minutes. And I have given them a proposal and I say for the purpose of record, in my submission; that government involvement should not be more that 10 per cent at most; that is, if they want to succeed.
In the book I presented to them I made it clear that government should not have any serious stake, so that we don’t go back to the old days when an aircraft is available you want to carry first lady, second lady; that is no more the game. If you want to fly, pay your money and go. This is one secret, number two secret, the government should partner with the manufacturers of the aircraft so that newer aircraft can be given on barter basis. Some of these aircraft manufacturers need something in Nigeria; bring it in. Nigerian should desist from acquiring aircraft through third party. We should eradicate this short cut.
Let me be honest to you, there is nothing we are doing in Nigeria in terms airline operation. We don’t do major aircraft maintenance in Nigeria. Why? Because we don’t have maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities (MRO). The facilities we patronize overseas know the value and they make a lot of money. It is moneymaking business. Some of them came to us offering us services in Manchester and we exchanged cards; they did that because they want business. So that once we are due for checks we bring the aircraft here and do the checks and go back home. So they know the business, they know how to make their money and they are doing very well. That is the beauty of it, it is moneymaking venture. Don’t forget that there was a time huge money was put in place in Nigeria for the establishment of the MRO, people came in and there seemed to be a plan, but later nothing happened. Now, where is the money?
How many passengers came in with the inaugural flight and what do you think was their perception?
We had 87 passengers. You saw me when I was walking round, exchanging pleasantries with everybody; that is one of my ways of doing business. I fly domestic flights unknown to anybody, I wake from my house, get a ticket and go to Yola, Maiduguri, and I sit in the economy. At 30,000, 31,000 feet I will stand up and start introducing myself to customers: I am Muneer Bankole, the CEO of Medview Airline, I am flying with you today to share your experience; whether we are meeting your expectation or there are any issues. Cabin crew, staff everybody knows me that this man will come in anywhere. And every day I go on route check, that mean I drop at international, get out of my car, I go round to the tarmac, put on my reflective jacket without anybody knowing. Because my driver does not put on his telephone on my way to the airport so there is no way you can communicate with him to tell you where I am; that is the rule of the game.
So I decide where I am going and what I intend to do. The question you have asked me on the issue of this flight, I want to tell you precisely on Lagos-London route; it is going to be a viable business. I have done a study. There are over three million Nigerian in this community. UK is the home of Nigerians, when you talk of who colonized us, who are our forefathers; this is the home. The historical facts are still on ground and this is the home of cargo business of aviation.
If I don’t carry passenger here I will make my money back with cargo. The aircraft that brought us here has the capacity to carry 20 tons. It has four complete pallets; my meeting yesterday was all marketing about cargo. My AGM cargo will be arriving tomorrow on our flight, for them to do aggressive marketing on cargo. I don’t need to tell you if I carry full capacity how much I am going to make. It is obvious that with cargo, I pay for the fuel and I had my breakeven point, so I am fine. So I don’t have issues of passenger liability. So we are moving and that is why we have dedicated so many things on cargo.
Many Nigerian carriers that were designated on the foreign route one time or the other ended pulling out due to some challenges, what effort have you put on ground to make sure that Medview lasts long in the London route?
I have always said that I am not in control; I believe in Almighty Father, He is in charge. It has to do with your determination, your doggedness or your approach to whatever you believe in and you leave it to God to take care. Most of these things are not in our hands and that is why when you employ people, you make sure you make them happy. My first success of Medview today is the welfare of my staff. The last Hajj, I took 100 staff along with me and everybody had money, because I put their package inside the profit of that my business. I am the only CEO that sits and tells staff this is our income, this is our expenditure, this is what is left for us, because I want to be transparent so that you can have in your right thinking sense that this man is not doing something different. The fact remains that people want to do the job and that is why when you come to my office you find it very light and easy. You have your responsibility, you have your schedule of duty and everybody runs the business.
Cargo subsector is another, which Nigerian carriers are not really looking into. You just said that with cargo alone you could make your money? How do you think we can boost the cargo subsector of the Nigerian aviation industry?
I told one of my officials when we were coming to London, that do you remember nine years ago when I brought Saudi Airline to Nigeria, when I was leaving with Saudi Airline cargo, I sat down with their management, they said I should give them a guarantee of 3,000 dollars which is about N1 million Riyadh. And I said for what? They said because we are not sure of your country and guarantee of the safety of our aircraft and equipment. I told them that they would gain a lot more than me that was going to service them. Why because we don’t have anything to export in Nigeria, the few we have are not even being encouraged. I will tell you why. Most of these animal skins are many in Nigeria, Kano and other places. They take this away from Nigeria process it and bring in shoes. Why don’t we do it back home and export the shoes?
If you go to Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL), the new building, the fourth floor, Medview holds the whole fourth floor. We are bringing in daily 100 tons of cargo to Nigeria. We have 30 cargo flights.
In 2013 federal government was able to grant waivers on aircraft parts? Safety implication?
Policies can only be reviewed, it cannot be banned or reversed but we go crazy sometimes. We have been agitating for this policy because Nigerian airlines are suffering. Why? We don’t have any window in Nigeria where we manufacture a single part of aircraft. Like the MROs, hangars, we don’t have any. So the last government after much deliberation came to the conclusion that you guys have a point, this is the window we can give you. They gave us waiver on imported aircraft parts. We are talking about spare parts that will save the lives of people. It was gazetted, when something is gazatted it becomes a policy and it is going to be implemented. Before another government comes in they need to sit again and look at why they have to do this.
