COVID-19: Nigeria’s airlines have lost N360billion so far —Operators

The umbrella body of all domestic airline owners in the country, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), has put the losses so far incurred by domestic airlines since the outbreak of COVID-19 at a whopping N360billion.

This is just as the spread of the disease and the precautionary measures put in place by the. Federal government have led to the grounding of 120 aircraft parked at the various airports across the country.

The AON through its Chairman, Captain Nogie Megisson  called on the federal government to consider an urgent stimulus grant or palliatives for domestic airlines to cushion the negative effects of post COVID-19 scourge.

In a statement issued on Friday, the AON commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for acknowledging the adverse impact of the virus on the global and Nigerian economies while urging the aviation agencies to take a cue from the CBN and seek ways to help airlines cushion the effect of the pandemic.

“It is instructive to note that about four weeks before domestic airlines decided to take the difficult decision to suspend both local and international flights to urgently support the government’s effort to curtail the virus, passengers traffic had declined drastically to about 9% leaving the domestic airlines in dire financial strait while raking avoidable cost.

“At the moment, over 120 aircraft are parked at our various airports across the country, with airlines required to pay accumulated cost on leased aircraft, staff salaries, allowances for crew, parking and maintenance fees and recurrent training. At present, domestic airlines have lost an estimated N360 billion and still counting with no end in sight.

“The AON unequivocally aligns with global concerns and reports which puts the aviation sub-sector as the worst hit, as a result of the various containment efforts and strategies, the world over, coupled with the recent announcement by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that passenger airliners could lose up to $133billion in revenues this year.  Aviation service providers, including airports, fueling services providers, ground handling service providers, security services providers, catering service providers and many more would be badly hit this year 2020, according to IATA.

“With these troubling statistics likely to threaten the existence of many domestic airlines in Nigeria who are still grappling with over 32 multiple charges, the AON wishes to commend the CBN for announcing a moratorium of one year on all principal repayments of intervention loans effective March 1, 2020, reducing interest rates from 9 to 5 percent per annum for one year, and creating a N50 billion targeted credit facility to cushion the impact of the virus on business, post COVID-19.

“AON is, therefore, seeking government stimulus packages and incentives to mitigate the negative impact of this pandemic on the aviation industry in Nigeria and by extension the domestic airlines. These should include deliberate sourcing loans, grants, the waivers, special forex windows and rates, reduction of airport taxes or surcharges and waivers,” it said.

While suggesting that another option could be approving corporate bonds through the CBN, the AON suggested completely waiving some charges to guarantee the survival of  airlines and avoid over 100, 000 direct job losses, post COVID-19.

“We are aware that Russia, U.S., Canada, Britain and other countries have come up with one measure of support or another for their airlines and Nigeria will not be a default if it looks at options of supporting the aviation industry. Air transport is a huge contributor to the GDP of Nigeria and we are appealing to the federal government to urgently consider the intervention to assist airlines at this difficult time,” the AON said.

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