Air Peace boss faults AfDB President over African airlines

The Chairman of Air Peace, Mr Allen Onyema, has disagreed with  the President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwunmi Adesina on his declaration that African airlines were poorly managed, describing Adesina’s position as ill-informed.

Speaking at the World Aviation Forum (WAF) organised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in Abuja, Onyema who said the AfDB boss was ignorant of the state of the African airlines, however, alerted of how high charges and taxes slammed on operating airlines in the continent by the governments would cripple carriers in Africa.

He particularly expressed sadness about the spurious taxes and charges being charged domestic airlines in Nigeria by the Federal Government through its aviation agencies, state governments which he said negated what was obtained in other parts of the world where indigenous airlines were given leeway to boost their operations.

His words: “You will recall that Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) hit Air Peace barely five days after we commenced our operations as a young airline and sealed our premise. They claimed that we didn’t pay customs duties for an aircraft that was yet to arrive Nigeria. That would tell you that civil servants are yet to understand how businesses work. In Nigeria, civil servants are very wicked.”

“Excess taxation is one of the banes of our aviation industry, it’s one of the things that is stunting our growth in this part of the world and except that is addressed, nothing will happen. But, in order to address that, the Federal Government set up a tax force in which I am a member to look into the issue.”

Reacting to the President of AfDB that African airlines were poorly maintained, Onyema, disagreed with the AfDB’s helmsman’s position maintaining that airlines on the continent especially airlines in Nigeria were over-regulated by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and insisted they could compete with any airline in the world.

Lamenting how such comments from Adesina, affected insurance premiums paid by African airlines, which he said were having negative impacts on their performances and financial resources, Onyema declared:“I disagree with Adesina on that statement because this is impunity the foreign countries hinge on. They tell you Nigeria is unsafe in order to add more insurance premiums for themselves. What I pay as insurance premiums on one aircraft, the legacy airlines of this world would pay it on four aircraft. They tell you Nigeria is unsafe and yet, all of them still scramble to come here. It is what I call international aero politics, which is very bad,” he added.