Why FG must jettison national carrier project — Ojikutu

FOR Nigeria air transport to be well defined, the Federal Government must do away with the idea of pursuing the national carrier project.

The Managing Director of Centurion Security Services, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retired), suggested that rather than continuing with the national carrier project, the government should support at least two of the existing domestic airlines to transform into national flag carriers.

According to Ojikutu: “Flag Carriers are now the global practices today as governments are not to be seen as business investors in civil aviation which they are obliged to regulate and oversee their operations in safety and security without compromise especially where there would be competition between the government airline christened now as national carrier and the private operators.”

He urged the government to consider airlines like Arik, Aero or Air Peace for the position of flag carriers.

He said: “Government can find life in Arik, Aero and Air Peace especially if their assets and debts liabilities are well assessed to attract foreign and local credible investors and technical partners. However, the national flag carriers must be ready to sell shares to the public in the Capital Stock Market to make it real national especially if they must operate the BASA routes which I consider Commonwealth of the Nigerian People.”

The security expert called for the review of the concession of multiple destinations in the commercial agreements given to some foreign airlines that have exposed them into the domestic routes and caused them to struggle the domestic markets with the domestic airlines.

The foreign airlines, he said, should be limited to either Lagos or Abuja and not to the two airports simultaneously, or they can go to any other besides the other of their choice between Lagos and Abuja.

Speaking on the allegations of high fares being charged by the airline operators, Ojikutu on the contrary, explained that air travelers should even pay more considering the wide gap between the naira and the dollar.

“I don’t know what is high fare in our participation in a global market like aviation that trade in dollars; the aircraft and its spares which none is manufactured in Nigeria are bought in dollars; fuel is now bought and imported in dollars.

“There is very little in value of naira that is added to the flights operations except the Nigerian labour in crew and flight lines maintenance and not the periodic C-checks and depot maintenance, which are paid for in dollars.

“If we were paying N4,000 or $100 in 1989 at N40 to a dollar when we were refining fuel in Nigeria, we cannot afford to charge less than $100 or N70,000 today if we are still refining fuel in Nigeria; but we are not, therefore, we need to pay more for air fare depending on the cost of the imported fuel.Don’t forget too that the cost of external maintenance and spares in dollars are there.”

“The problems of most of the operators include the fact that most do not do accurate business plans to explore the operational costs of the aircraft type before buying them; the market and competitors or competing factors on the routes. They all come to be depending on Government intervention funds and subsidies.

“A number of them are critically indebted to the services providers in the sectors today just as government too needs intervention funds so who will save the airlines from themselves?”