As unions mount pressures on airlines, FG toys with bailout plans

With the gradual reopening of the country’s airports and the subsequent recommencement of domestic flight operations, life is beginning to pick up though with obvious controversies and the different strategies being employed by the airlines to survive effects of the pandemic. In this piece, SHOLA ADEKOLA looks into the faceoff between the aviation unions, government’s refusal to bail airline and sack of workers, among other sundry issues.

FOR the five months lockdown period within which flight operations were put on hold, domestic airline business just like international flights were completely shut down with the Nigerian carriers in particular forced to ground their over 120 aircraft across airports in the country.

The grounding of these aircraft for so long brought great losses to the owners in many ways as they continued to service the parked planes by their maintenance engineers to ensure the aircraft did not suffer corrosion. The airline owners during the period had to continue to pay the salaries of their core workers including pilots, engineers though not full salaries in order not to lose them.

At this point, it became clearer here in Nigeria that life could never remain the same again for domestic airline operations, where hitherto the outbreak of the pandemic, four out of the six airlines in the country had already been caught up in a financial mess and other challenges leaving only two still standing though with some challenges

In order to remain in business, the airlines have started taking some actions which as unfortunate as they may be, have become pertinent in the face of the failure of the government to come to their aid.

As of today, all the airlines, including Air Peace, Dana Air, Max Air, Azman, Aero and Arik are struggling in the face of travellers’ apathy, high cost of operations and other obligations.

For example, Air Peace, the largest domestic airline which, before the pandemic used to enjoy over 120 flights, has come down to about 20 but with the workforce of over 3,500 the government is not ready to shift ground on the multiple taxes that are continuously being slammed on the already troubled domestic airlines. The airlines are all closer to the brink than when they started. Amidst these uncertainties, many airline workers led by the unions are being accused of insensitivity, which some key players said, poses a grave challenge to the survival of the airlines.

 

Effects on workers

Looking everywhere with no help coming in sight from the government, the airlines have been forced to take some drastic actions to remain afloat. In the last two weeks, over 1,000 workers have been laid off, out of which 150 pilots and engineers were affected.

According to the spokesperson of Air Peace, Stanley Olise; “The airline cannot afford to toe the path of being unable to continue to fulfill its financial obligations to its staff, external vendors, aviation agencies, maintenance organisations, insurance companies, banks and other creditors hence the decision to restructure its entire  operations with a view to surviving the times.

A statement from the management of Bristow Helicopters justifying the sack partly read; ”The spread of the Covid-19 virus has severely impacted all sectors in the aviation industry including our market, which primarily serves the Nigerian oil and gas sector. In addition, the ongoing downturn in the global oil and gas market continues to influence and determine the demand for our services. The combined effects of these ‘arising’ has resulted in very significant reductions to our business particularly a reduction in the number of contracted aircraft in Nigeria.

 

Union’s standard

As soon as the sack letters started flying, the ever ready aviation unions while refusing to understand the precarious situation the airlines are operating in, have declared war on the airlines for daring to sack their members in the airlines.

Some struggles may require hard struggle while some may require dialogue and persuasion. The aviation unions led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has condemned and rejected the gale of sack of the workers.

The labour leaders while emphasizing the case of the sacked pilots and other categories of workers by Air Peace in particular, declared; “we state that it is unfortunate that the management of Air Peace has fully exploited the atmosphere of industrial tyranny which forbids workers from joining trade unions to strike this fatal blow on the livelihood and career of the sacked workers. The Nigeria Labour Congress warns that the absence of unions in Air Peace will not stop NLC from fighting for the rights of the sacked workers.”

 

Unions must show sensitivity:

Reacting to the approach of the unions towards sensitive issues like sack at this critical period when airlines like other businesses are mapping out strategies for post-COVID-19 survival, the Managing Director of Centurion Security Service and a member of Aviation Round Table, Group Captain John Ojikutu, retired, declared “Today, you hardly can tell who is in charge of the enforcement of the economic regulations; the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) or the unions? If we are not careful, the trends in the industry  that see the unions always pulling every sector at will without control, caution or regulations, might pull the industry down beyond a good redemption. What is happening now has always been with us but everyone was benefiting and the mouths and hands were full that no one could stop anyone.

“Foreign airlines of developed countries are withdrawing their aircraft and substituting them with smaller ones and I think that is the thought of some of the airlines like Air Peace and Medview from what I am reading. This is the time for the serious private and public operators including the services providers to review or rewrite the business plans to meet the new challenges in the industry.”

 

General views:

For fear of being victimised, some workers who spoke under anonymity accused the unions of failing to apply wisdom in addressing the issue of staff welfare with the airlines that have been financially incapacitated by the pandemic.

According to many of the airline workers, the strategy of sack engaged by the owners is not peculiar to Nigeria, therefore, the unions rather than getting confrontational as they are doing presently, should have embraced dialogue and subtle approach.

“Presently, rather than help bring hope to the faces of the workers, the action of the unions have ended up complicating their case in the face of the outright sack of the workers at a period everyone is fighting for survival. Confrontation does not pay all the time.”

 

Domestic airlines on life support

Key players while accusing the unions of further putting the airlines under unnecessary tension of having to struggle for survival on one hand, and also cope with the unions’ threats over sack of workers have blamed the government of insensitivity to the plights of the domestic airlines when government of nations are giving priority to the indigenous airlines to survive after the pandemic.

With the resumption of flights, Air Peace that used to operate over 120 flights daily now struggles to operate meager 20 flights daily. It is the same story with airlines like Dana Air that used to operate over twenty two flights daily which now fluctuates between eight and 12 flights.

Airline that has had its daily flights reduced from 120 to 20 or from 22 to eight cannot obviously retain all the staff it has therefore, it becomes economically wise for it to restructure for survival. It is being argued that with the reduction in the flights of the airline coupled with the suspension of foreign flights, the airline like others should not be blamed for embarking on right sizing. Some stakeholders judging from the tension between the airline owners and the workers have accused the unions of heightening the tension through what they described as their insensitivity towards the reality on ground.

 

FG’s insensitivity

Many key players across the sector have heaped the blame for the ongoing sack of the airline workers on the government’s lackadaisical attitude towards assisting the airlines with palliative bailout. According to them, leaving the domestic airlines to their plight this time around when government of other nations are assisting their own is unwise.

The delay of government in the expected bailout bid to airline even after announcing publicly that it was going to do that is a smack of insensitivity to domestic airline business. For many stakeholders, since government is not ready to assist the indigenous airlines to survive the hardship, the airlines should not be blamed for taking actions like sack. The implications of the government’s attitude according to key players include an imminent total collapse of the indigenous airlines and the subsequent takeover of the country’s international and domestic airline scenes by foreign airlines. Allowing the foreign carriers to dominate total air transport in the country will mean more money to the coffers of the airlines and their home countries. Nigeria will surely be the greatest loser with the attendant effect on private investments.

 

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