For domestic airlines to survive, the government must put in place the right policies, operators have said.
Carriers will continue to have problem if the policies are wrong, they added.
Dana Air Chief Operating Officer Obi Mbanuzuo, FMC Aviation Managing Director Hubert Odika and former Afrijet director Mohammed Tukur spoke in separate interviews in Lagos.
Such policies, Mbanuzuo said, should include reduction in airport and air navigation charges, local refining of aviation fuel as well iuncentives for indigenous airlines to set up an aircraft maintenance facility.
He described the airline business as “capital intensive”, saying everything is priced in dollars.
He said aviation fuel, for instance, takes over 40 per cent of an airline’s revenue.
“There is the need to refine jet fuel locally. Currently, a lot of the supplies are imported. There are import problems, which are causing scarcity.
“If we can refine locally, there will be excess supply to satisfy growing demand.
“So,we need the government support in the sense of making the right policies. Recently, Ghana reduced the price of aviation fuel by 20 per cent but government here says it is deregulated, but the currency is dropping every day. We should be looking at the Nigerian economy,” he said.
Mbanuzuo also said the policies on maintenance should be such that airlines could get spare parts and equipment, in and out of the country.
He said nothing should stop an airline from taking a piece of land in Lagos and building a hangar.
“If maintenance were done in Nigeria, we would not waste money abroad. But because the policies do not work, it is not viable,” he said.
Mbanuzuo also said getting foreign exchange to run an airline had been difficult.
“We require it to do business and it has become very difficult to come by. We import everything we use, from the spare parts to jet fuel, which is not refined locally. Even in the good times, all these were imported, but the cushioning effect in the past is that, at least, the local currency, which we traded, was a bit stable, but of recent, naira has collapsed. So, what we pay for both spare parts and maintenance has gone up and this affects what customers pay as well,” he said.
Mbanuzuo said aviation has the potential to contribute at least four or five per cent to the country’s gross domestic product. He also commented on the charges airlines pay, saying: “I believe that the five per cent of what we pay as charges should be completely done away with because we pay the regulators for everything that we do.’’
He added: “We pay for aircraft registration, pilot licences, approval of manuals and approval of simulators, among others. There is a contentious issue of five per cent on tickets sales.
Tukur canvassed the use of medium range aircraft to reduce operating costs for airlines.
Such aircraft, he said will gulp less quantity of aviation fuel , thereby reducing cost of operations.
Odika called on the government to harmonise aeronautical charges to reduce cost of operations for indigenous carriers.
Odika said if operators must remain profitable in business, they need to introduce medium range airplanes.
He said without the government’s intervention through policy, many domestic carriers could close shop .
