The rise in the number of collapsed indigenous airlines have collapsed has triggered unemployment among professionals in the aviation sector. As a fall out, hundreds of pilots, cabin attendants, aircraft maintenance engineers, flight dispatchers and other avionics technicians are roaming the streets. Besides the experienced crop of professionals who are jobless, an army of young pilots with insufficient flying hours has swollen the ranks of the unemployed, writes KELVIN OSA OKUNBOR.
These are not the best of times for professionals in the aviation industry. The recurring bust and boom circles for indigenous carriers have triggered a spike in unemployment among aviation professionals.
In the last two decades, the industry has witnessed a sharp decline in the number of local carriers as many of them have ceased to operate for various reasons.
Nigeria Airways Limited, which provided employment and training for all categories of aviation professionals, was liquidated in 2004.
The liquidation of the largest carrier in the sector’s history its over 6,000 personnel jobless.
Since then, its horde of pilots, rated in many aircraft types, engineers, flight dispatchers, cabin crew and others have remained unemployed.
Airlines’ collapse, experts say, has triggered job losses in the sector, where some skills set cannot be easily transfered to other industries because of licensing, certification and other considerations.
Experts say the rising unemployment in the sector calls for concern because of the huge sums invested in training the professionals whose skills are industry specific. They argue that skills acquired by pilots, aircraft engineers, cabin crew and other technical personnel are limited in application to other sectors.
Investigations by The Nation revealed that many pilots who worked for Chanchangi Airlines, Albarka Air Services, Freedom Air Services, Falcon Air, Sosoliso Airlines, Bellview Airlines, Kabo Air, Okada Air, Capital Airlines, Associated Aviation, EAS Airlines, Virgin Nigeria Airways, DASAB Airlines, Spaceworld International Airlines, IRS Airlines, Afrijet Airlines and others are idle.
The high rate of unemployment is worrisome to stakeholders, as efforts by the Federal Government to compel foreign carriers to engage Nigerian pilots have not yielded the right results.
There was a proclamation by the government in 2014 that foreign carriers flying into Nigeria must have at least a local pilot and aircraft engineers in their crew. The Nation learnt that about N10 million is required to train and be certified as a pilot or an aircraft engineer at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, Kaduna State and the International Aviation College (IAC) in Ilorin, Kwara State.
While many domestic airlines are closing shop in Nigeria, the situation is different in other parts of the world. For instance, the Middle East and Far East are in dire need of pilots to meet the growth of their aviation sectors.
Major aircraft manufacturer – Boeing – had projected that more than 248,000 new pilots would be needed to drive the growth in air transportation, with China in Asia – Pacific region leading the pack.
In Nigeria, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), NCAT and IAC are worried by the redundancy of experienced hands and lack of practical training fields for upcoming ones. A few years ago, NCAA statistics indicated that there were about 554 pilots and over 913 aircraft engineers with valid Nigerian licence.
Operators of many of the domestic carriers that could have hired the associate pilots have closed shop, leaving only seven — Air Peace, Med view Airline, Dana Air, Ark Air, Aero Airline, A2MAN Air and Overland Airways. Pilots, who command flights and engineers, who fix the aircraft are the first set of casualties whenever an airline collapses.
According to global statistics, Nigeria ranks high among the nations where experienced and fresh pilots scramble for non-existent jobs, whereas China would require 5,000 pilots yearly in the next two decades to cope with its ever-growing aviation industry.There are reports that many Chinese carriers are shopping for experienced pilots to address the shortage.
The dearth of insufficient flying hours, type rating and up-to-date training, among other requirements critical for job placement, may have shut out the products of Nigeria’s aviation colleges. But NAAPE is not folding its arms on the development.
Its President, Abednego Galadima, said the body was designing a template to facilitate the engagement of unemployed pilots. He put the number of unemployed pilots and aircraft engineers at about 600, a development he described as unacceptable and must, therefore, be addressed to tackle the challenge of ageing workforce in the sector.
Galadima spoke of NAAPE’s plans to partner NCAT for associate pilots to earn enough flying hours and put them in good stead for employment. He said: “At some point, we have a case where we have over 250 unemployed associate pilots.
”The unemployment rate is a big problem in the country particularly as the two professions require one to be current; and most of the pilots and engineers were trained with huge sums. So, the investment will just be lost if they do not retain currency, because they will not be employable again without currency,” Galadima said.
He called on the government to initiate a scheme that will provide a window for unemployed pilots to get further training to make them marketable.
He said: “That is why we are advocating that the government do something. In fact, we have put in a proposal to a number of our partners; we are still looking for more partners to fund it; just like what the government is doing for the unemployed through the N-Power programme.
“If that can be extended to aviation, NAAPE is willing to partner with anybody. If NCAT is given some money, young pilots will go and build hours flying aircraft there and also use simulator as well. It will help them build more hours and gather more experience and expertise.
“For the engineers, too, we are putting a scheme in place in that proposal, where they can be deployed to aviation entities where we have senior engineers that will take them through on-the-job training and guide them properly.
”These are the things we are doing. We are approaching the Ministry of Transportation (Aviation Section) with Local Content Development Board. We will approach Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF), Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and appeal to their conscience.”
Galadima said the proposed national carrier will also create a window for unemployed pilots and aircraft engineers.
The NAAPE chief said: “If the National Carrier comes up, it will be a plus to us. While the airline will absorb some pilots and aircraft engineers, it is our hope that some of the unemployed will find somewhere to fit in. Government is talking about five aircraft to start the operation. You know that it will require a minimum of 50 pilots.
Why pilots are jobless
Explaining why many pilots are unemployed, NCAT Rector Captain Abdulsalami Mohammed said local pilots sought to operate commercial airlines after training. He urged newly-trained pilots to seek to fly private airplanes, including sortie aircraft and others under General Aviation, to gain experience before applying to operate commercial airlines.
Abdulsalami said a large number of pilots with valid licences cannot get jobs because they tend to seek for jobs with commercial airlines which demand for experienced pilots.
According to the NCAT captain, working with general aviation is the practice, he added: “Unemployed pilots is a subject that is dear to me because every day I get a call from someone who wants his son employed or I get a question on why would I bother to come out and train as a pilot when there are no jobs.
”As you know, we have many unemployed young pilots in the market and the airlines are reluctant to employ and train them because they claim that when you train some of them they run away.”
The Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Captain Nogie Meggison, described the high unemployment rate as alarming.
He said besides the 100 pilots trained by the Kano State Government a few years ago, in Jordan, about 400 others are unemployed, including ex-agitators from the Niger Delta trained under the Federal Government Amnesty Programme.
Medview Airlines Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Muneer Bankole said the unemployment of local pilots could be traced to the 2004 liquidation of the Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL).
According to him, the liquidation closed the window for training and type-rating for fresh pilots. Bankole said if NAL was not liquidated, many pilots would have been gainfully absorbed to get the requisite experience.
Urging the authorities to address the drift, Meggison cautioned that the growing unemployment among pilots could hinder the growth of the aviation industry.
He condemned the influx of foreign pilots and engineers into the industry. According to him, there are no fewer than 1,000 foreign pilots engaged by local and foreign registered airlines and over 500 foreign engineers employed in the country.
Way forward
Meggison is pushing for the creation of an enabling policy that would check the influx of foreign pilots and engineers into Nigeria, to check the high unemployment rate. He insisted that some domestic carriers have done well by engaging some of the pilots.
Meggison said: “The government should compel foreign carriers to set up a line station for aircraft maintenance in the country and employ local engineers to assist in turning around the sector.
“They should look into other avenues also. If policies are not put in place, the challenge of unemployment may not be resolved soon. It is shameful that licensed young pilots are now driving kabu kabu (taxis) to make ends meet. This is totally unacceptable. Not that there are no jobs, but jobs are taken over by foreigners.”
Like Meggison, Captain Dele Ore, a pilot and former commander of the zPresidential Fleet, described the high unemployment rate as sordid.
Blaming the trend on the absence of a well-thought-out government policy, Ore lamented that the development has created room for foreigners to dictate the pace in the industry.
Insisting that the government cannot force local airlines to hire Nigerians at a time some of them are facing hard times and struggling to survive, Ore advocated a “deliberate government policy” that would encourage airlines to ensure that a Nigerian passport holder sits in the cockpit of every aircraft flying in the country’s airspace.
To Bankole, one way to solve the problem is for the government to compel airline operators to embark on training and retraining of young professionals.
He declared that though training and type-rating of pilots would improve employment generation for the industry, most of the indigenous carriers are not interested in training of technical personnel, but prefer to poach from other airlines.
However, to solve the problem, he said the government should ask individual airlines to come together and advise it on how to improve the sector. “We need commitment from individual carriers on manpower development for us to grow the sector,” Bankole said.
An expert, who pleaded for anonymity, said: “As at today, becoming a pilot from the scratch costs nothing less than $250,000 and one would have expected that immediately after graduating from the flying school, either in Nigeria or overseas, they would automatically get jobs, but that is not the case.”
As the country’s aviation is shrinking, China, Europe and the United States are in dire need of pilots. The disadvantage of this is that most of these airlines, based abroad, are looking for pilots who already have hundreds of hours under their belt; and they are reluctant to retrain pilots that have been out of jobs for years or have never been employed.
About a year ago, Chinese airlines began massive demand for pilots as they needed to hire almost 100 pilots a week for the next 20 years to meet growing travel demand. Facing a shortage of candidates at home, carriers dangled lucrative pay packages at foreigners with cockpit experience.
Investigations revealed that the near collapse of General Aviation in the country also compounded the woes of Nigerian pilots. General Aviation (GA) is the term for all civil aviation operations other than scheduled air services and non-scheduled air transport operations for remuneration or hire. GA flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to corporate business jet flights.
The majority of the world’s air traffic falls into this category. Most of the world’s airports serve GA exclusively. They cover a range of activities, commercial and non-commercial, including flying clubs, flight training, agricultural aviation, light aircraft manufacturing and maintenance.
Also worrisome is the fact that Nigeria’s wealthy elite prefer to hire foreign pilots to fly their private jets. Reason: Nigerian pilots fresh from aviation school have between 300 and 400 flight hours’ experience while there is a preference by employers for pilots with between 1,200 and 1,700 flight hours, for safety reasons.
An expert said: “The foreign pilots deemed to have the required flight hours were given time and opportunity to do so. Why should it be different for Nigerian pilots? The question is, how can they accumulate such hours when they have not been given the opportunity to fly?”
“Not only the exorbitant cost in Nigeria, there is another great hurdle: how do you get the required number of flight hours needed for the next level after you have obtained your Commercial Pilot Licence? When the pilot has obtained this licence, he is expected to go for type- rating; that is specialising in a particular aircraft type. It is after that that he could be employed as a flight officer.
”In Nigeria, the challenge is there is no platform for the person who has a Commercial Pilot Licence to type-rate on any particular aircraft. Such platform was provided by the defunct NAL, which actually trained most Nigerian pilots that operate today in various parts of the world.”
South Africa Airways, Kenya Airways, Ethiopia Airlines, Air Maroc and Egypt Air are some of the major national carriers on the continent that churn out trained pilots every year.
They also provide them the aircraft for type- rating before they start flying as flight officers. Ethiopia and Kenya supply the Middle East and others pilots and other aviation personnel because they have a successful training academy that have lasted for years and they latch on their national airlines, which provide the platform for the trained pilots to garner flight experience.
Chief Executive Officer, Aero Contractors, Captain Ado Sanusi, noted that local airlines employ seasoned and expatriate pilots for many reasons. Besides their reliability, Sanusi said young indigenous pilots hardly stay with the airline that trained them long enough to justify the resources expended on their training.
Sanusi explained: “In developed countries, if you finish with 250 hours, you don’t go to airlines; you go to flying school till you get 1,500 hours before you start coming to fly for airlines.
“It is when you get Airline Pilot Licence (APL) that you fly for an airline. But, we take them with commercial pilot licence, with very low hours, we train them or let us say they even train themselves, they come to us with very low hours, 250 hours and 300 hours.
”Taking a trainee pilot with that number of hours will increase the airline’s insurance premium because the airline is using inexperienced and low time co-pilot. The increasing insurance premium will put a lot of stress on the aircraft because they are going to be doing training and everything. And when the pilot becomes proficient, then he now says I am paying him small remuneration and he leaves.
”When you come in with low flying hours, you pay the airline to gain up to 500 and 1000 hours on the type of the aircraft. But now, I am bringing you in, giving you this training on the aircraft, giving you the opportunity to have this experience, without any government incentive to the airline and I am a privately owned company, I am doing business purely on profit basis; I am not doing it on charity.
”Then after you have been trained and I have paid a high insurance premium; after I have suffered a lot on my landing gear because of hard landings that pilots do while training; after I have suffered all that expense in maintenance of the aircraft and other expenses, you now say, I am paying you a little, so, you want to leave me and go to another airline.”
Meggison said the disturbing unemployment rate among qualified pilots informed his decision to gather them under the auspices of Nigerian Professional Pilots (NPP). “I set up this platform for young pilots who haven’t found jobs as common pool where employers can tap from. It also provides them the opportunity to come together and get acquainted with developments in the aviation sector,” Meggisson said.
He said no fewer than 170 licensed pilots have been registered by NPP, adding that they meet regularly. Meggison said: “The awareness will also tell industry operators there is a pool of young pilots they can draw from rather than engaging expatriate pilots alone. If we do not address ingenious pilots’ unemployment, soon we would be shocked with what has hit us.
”So, we are looking at opportunities of engaging the government on how best we can reduce pilot unemployment, one of which is to create a better aviation environment for local skills.”
A pilot with Bristow Helicopters Nigeria Limited, Captain Akin Oni, attributed the pilots’ predicament to their inability to pass competence tests and low quality training from overseas training institutions as part of the reasons many indigenous pilots are unable to secure employment in the sector.
A data obtained from the NCAA said the number of expatriate pilots in the country dropped from 631 in 2016 to 609 in 2017.
The number of licensed pilots operating in the country rose from 2,226 in 2016 to 2,356 in 2017. The pilots are engaged by passenger and cargo airlines, five helicopter companies and other charter airlines.
Aviation security consultant and Secretary-General of the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative Group Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd), however, stated that the drop in the number of expatriate pilots was still negligible, consid ering the number of Nigerian pilots who needed jobs.
”We can’t say we have achieved much until it drops by at least 30 to 50 per cent. Until it drops further, it will not make any sense,” he said.
Insisting that many unemployed Nigerian pilots roam the streets, Ojikutu said: “There are quite a lot of pilots hanging around, but most of the airlines bring in expatriates not because of anything, but for capital flight.
“That figure that shows their number is reducing may be true but is it reasonable enough? The difference is still not much.”If in 2016 we had over 600 and in 2017, it reduced to 500, it means about 100 of them have left, that would have been better,” Ojikutu said.
The onus is on the airlines; if we really want to have more Nigerian pilots, they should absorb them.”But to absorb them most times, the airlines ask them to go for type-rating with their money and where will many of them get between $100,000 and $200,000 for that from? These are people who are looking for jobs.
”He stated that in the days of NAL, the government sponsored the training of many pilots, a responsibility, which he noted many domestic airlines had refused to take.”The entire pilots, who were trained by the Nigeria Airways, were quickly employed by other airlines when it was liquidated; they are now old and there is no space for more pilots and because of that, airlines go out to get expatriates.
They bring them in, pay them in dollars rather than absorb and train Nigerian pilots.”NCAA spokesman Sam Adurogboye urged the government to come up with a policy that will mandate foreign airlines to engage indigenous pilots as crew members. Proposed National Carrier to the RescueA few months ago the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers has asked the Federal Government to quicken the inauguration of Nigeria Air.
The association said the Federal Government should quickly remove all obstacles on the path of the new national carrier so that it could become operational.”The urgent need to inaugurate the Nigeria Air requires no further restating. It is considered a great disservice to hesitate, or delay, this laudable project any further, considering the rich harvest of gains expected from the coming on stream of the national carrier,” the association said.
In a communiqué issued at the end of its National Executive Council meeting and signed by its General Secretary, Ocheme Aba, NAAPE also called for a review of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority’s policy on pilots’ simulation training.
According to the association, the situation where after training, a pilot’s simulator certificate’s ownership is vested in the airline where he works, is a form of slave labour and denies pilots the right to their intellectual property.
It added, “Besides, this situation has created a chaotic atmosphere where pilots who have been relieved of their employment through redundancy and other means by various airlines are unable to secure other employment with their pilot’s simulator certificate even as such certificates are current.”The present policy connotes that a valid certificate may be invalidated within its validity period. This contravenes the periodic renewal policy. It also does incalculable damage to the holder, and no good to any party.”Among other issues, the association also commended the Federal Government on the Executive Order No 5.It stated that having reviewed the content, principles and objectives of the Order, which reinforced the Expatriate Quota Policy and the Local Content Act for the purpose of assuring that qualified Nigerians were given preference for Nigerian generated employment opportunities, it found it laudable and timely