As future looks gloomy for Nigeria’s domestic airlines

The fears being nursed about imminent depression hanging on the country’s aviation sector particularly the domestic airline scene is gradually becoming a reality in the face of the ongoing rampage targeted at both humans and every other thing in sight by the coronavirus pandemic.

Without belabouring anyone, since the pandemic spread to Nigeria in February through an Italian, things have never remained the same as the virus continues to ravage through the length and breath of the country like other parts of the world snuffing lives out of human beings.

As the pandemic continues to kill and destabilise, the federal government, like governments of other nations, has announced various measures meant to further prevent more hazards.

It is no longer news that the preventive measures so far taken have started taking their tolls on every sphere of life as such measures have negatively impacted all sectors of the economy.

Again, it is no longer news that the most hard hit sector by the tough measures is the aviation sector which unfortunately happens to be the channel through which the virus was spread across the world, courtesy of air transport.

Since the outbreak of the virus, airports in Nigeria have been shut down though at a very late time, without an active airport system, obviously, the airlines are left with no choice but to stop their operations which has been the case with the domestic airlines.

The effects of the continuous closure of the airports with the suspension of flight operations has left so much pain and agony in the lives of the airline owners, the workers and their dependents.

Prior to last week, key players including the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) had raised the fear of job loss and imminent collapse of airline business in view of the subsequent effect of the pandemic on the domestic airline activities.

As predicted the fears are gradually becoming real following the decision of Arik Air management to direct 90 percent of its workforce to proceed on indefinite leave without pay while the remaining 10 per cent will only be entitled to a meager 20 per cent of their salary because of the economic hardship thrown. at the airline by the virus.

Before the announcement by Arik Air, Max Air had earlier informed its workers not to expect salary while the lockdown continues just as Aero has placed its workers on the alert not to expect full salary but half as a result of the pandemic.

Without doubt, the whole scenario depicts a gloomy future which if not well handled by the government may spell doom for domestic airline business in the country.

To prevent the total extinction of domestic airline business in the country, the federal government needs to put on its thinking cap urgently and take some steps that will cushion the effect of the virus on the airlines as they are already on ground.

Among policies government urgently needs to review which had hitherto been disadvantageous to domestic airline business is the multiple designation policy and the loose frequencies it has with the home countries of the foreign airlines which remain the bane of the indigenous airlines.

Government should give better priority to domestic airlines through making the environment more conducive for them.

It will not be out of place if government waves off the usual 32 taxes they pay to the aviation agencies at least for six months. Besides this, the airlines can be allowed to have access to some bailout which can be worked out.

While the government is thinking of how to rescue the troubled domestic airlines, the airlines can also consider coming together to form a formidable alliance which will no doubt make them stronger to survive the post COVID-19 scourge.

Again, the domestic airlines particularly the ones with more than five or ten fleet should consider going into cargo operations rather than keep such planes on ground.

Without doubt, the future of domestic airline business looks scary and it will only take absolute cooperation from government on one hand and the airlines on the other hand to come up with reasonable economic plan to keep the business afloat. This is the only way to revive the sector and bring hope back to the airline operators and the already hopeless workers.

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