The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has disclosed its plans to grow and strengthen indigenous airlines saying the Aviation Industry needs to grow with the growth of the airlines.
Director General of NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, made this disclosure in a zoom interview with the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) Thursday night.
This is just as the Managing Director/CEO of Airline Management Support Limited (AMSL), Captain David Olubadewo, has harped on the need for the federal government to protect and help grow the domestic airlines.
Unfolding the plans, Nuhu said the new regulation of minimum of six aircraft for startup airlines was necessary because for any of them to have six aircraft shows it has a very strong financial background of running an airline.
He stated that the problem is that a lot of the airlines do not even have the capacity to meet current financial obligations, pointing out that if a carrier has just two or three aircraft it becomes risky to meet up with operations should the airline lose one of the aircraft to any challenge, because this would end in flight delays and cancellations.
The Director General informed that the number of aircraft an airline would have will depend on the kind of operations it wants to do, adding that the regulation is not only for new entrants, but that the old ones too have a period by which they have to comply to avoid recurrent problems.
His words: “The problem is that a lot of the airlines don’t even have the capacity to meet current financial obligations. If you have three aircraft for instance and you lose one out of it, it has become a problem to meet up with your operations. Then, you start to have issues of flight delays, cancellations and all that.
“The number of aircraft you will have will depend on the kind of operations you want to do. You can imagine somebody who comes in with just one or two aircraft and one of the aircraft goes out of business, and he sells tickets to the passengers, think of what will happen. For you to have six aircraft, it shows you have very strong financial background of running an airline.
“It is not only for new entrants, but the old ones too have a period by which they have to comply. If everybody has one or two aircraft, we will keep having this recurring problem. We have to avoid that.
“People will criticise, but every country is different. We have to look at our own peculiar history and try to come up with solutions, but regulations are not cast on stones. If the situation changes, the regulation would be reviewed accordingly. Whenever it is necessary, we don’t have to wait for five years before we make amendments.”
Continuing on the path of development and growth, Nuhu posited that looking at the industry in Nigeria, we are under-travelled, but that the sector is growing with several orders by indigenous airlines, hence, the need to grow the industry with the growth of the airlines.
Still in line with this, he explained that the recent agreement signed by Nigeria with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on Civil Aviation Master Plan (CAMP) is a comprehensive plan for Nigeria aimed at building a roadmap of growth for the country for the next 10 years.
He said: “We had an agreement with ICAO on CAMP and actually I signed for Nigeria. CAMP is a comprehensive plan for Nigeria, looking at all the components of the aviation industry, looking at what we have put in place, the government aviation economic projection for Nigeria, trying to build a roadmap for us as a country for the next 10 years.
“What this does is that every sector will know what it needs to do; the regulatory body, the industry is going to grow at a particular rate annually and we put in the plans to push this growth. After the audit, the implementation will start and the good thing is that when they come to Nigeria, they are going to talk with aviation agencies, the airlines, finance people, tourism boards, customs and others.
“Everything that is remotely or directly connected to the aviation industry will be involved in this. So, we have an all-encompassing roadmap for Nigeria’s aviation industry.
“If you look at the industry in Nigeria, we are under-travelled, but the sector is growing with several orders by our airlines. We need to grow the industry with the growth of our airlines. It is going to help us and also, it is a requirement and we are killing many birds with one stone.”
Speaking further, the Director General announced that the Federal Ministry of Aviation has given some of the airlines designation to fly regional and international routes, but that most of them want to concentrate on regional flights for now. “Only Air Peace is going international routes for now.
“Ibom Air is going to Ghana soon and we are working with Air Peace to assist them to London. We are also working with OmniBlu to fly to London as well.”