Despite COVID-19, airline business in Nigeria fairing well —Olateru

Nigeria’s Accident Investigation Bureau’s Commissioner, Mr Akin Olateru has expressed satisfaction with the way the federal government has so far managed the Coronavirus pandemic which he attributed to the gradual recovery of the aviation sector, particularly airline business.

In his assessment of the Nigerian aviation sector under the pandemic, Olateru cited how, while in other climes airline business has remained in the lowest ebb, flight operations in Nigeria has continued to grow with airlines enjoying full load capacity.

The AIB Chief while explaining that aviation was not a Nigerian thing, but a global phenomenon governed by international treaties and agreement which made COVID-19 a global issue, declared: “If you asked me from the management of the situation locally what do I think? I think the federal government has really done well from the way they have managed the pandemic so far, considering the rate of infection, the death.

“I can tell you that we have done well than most of the richest countries, even though we are not the richest, but we have done excellently well. Besides, aviation in Nigeria is slightly different from other parts of the world. We beat all this world analysis because we have peculiarities different.

“Look at our domestic and international operations, while most flights around the world are going half, ours is full. If you want to fly to Abuja and you don’t book three or four days ahead, you are not going anywhere. Meanwhile, the passenger load is still there.

“So in terms of assessment, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, I think we are still doing very well; we just need to keep up with the standard and making flight enjoyable for passengers. Then we also need to make our customers relations better and I think we will get there with that.”

Olateru who was recently reappointed by the government to commence his second tenure as the CEO of AIB used the opportunity to talk about his priorities, identifying workers’ welfare as his number one priority.

His words: “There are a few items on the list. Priority number one is the issue of staff welfare, the issue of training, issue of promotion and equipping our staff with the right tools and things that will make them happy. For instance, going to the accident site, the right operational vehicle and the whole things that will give them satisfaction.

“Number two priority is to ensure that we continue to deliver our mandate and it is clear that we investigate serious incident and accident and it has to be done to the highest professional level.

“The best that can be done is to release a report in good time and the quality of the report should be topnotch and the fact that should be clear and it must be communicated in a way the reader can understand. All this will make AIB an enviable place to work.”

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