Turbulent flight: Nigeria Air’s take-off dogged by fresh crisis

By AYOOLA OLAOLUWA

Nigerians dream of seeing the much anticipated national carrier, Nigeria Air, take into the air may not materialise soon as the airline continues to face strong challenges that are currently threatening to scupper its take-off, Business Hallmark findings can reveal.

President Muhammadu Buhari, it would be recalled, had during his electioneering campaigns in 2015, promised Nigerians that he would establish a national airline within three years of being elected president.

While the initial launch date of 2018 failed to materialise, the rescheduled date of April 2022 had also come and gone, with the airline far from been ready to take into the air. The airline’s management had blamed logistical factors for the delayed take off.

BH checks, however, can reveal that the airline’s problems are more teething and multifaceted.
For instance, more than seven years after the president gave the assurance of a befitting national carrier to expectant Nigerian voters, the airline has not been able to secure an Air Operator Certificate (AOC); a single plane has not been purchased, and it is not clear when the first flight will hit the sky.

On Monday, June 6, the interim management of the proposed national carrier was presented the Air Transport Licence (ATL) by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) at the headquarters of NCAA in Abuja. The ATL is one of the licences that must be obtained by an airline before it can start scheduled and non-scheduled services.

Despite the ATL breakthrough, the airline cannot start operations without getting the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) which fully grants it the right to begin air services. Several sources in the aviation industry confided in our correspondent that the airline is finding it difficult to meet the conditions required for granting the license.

“Without the AOC, the airline can’t start operations, even after getting all the other licences. The Federal Government had tried to hasten the process in favour of the airline.
“But since air transportation is a very sensitive and highly regulated sector, regulators are wary of succumbing to government pressure to hasten the process of granting the airline the final approval without it meeting all laid down conditions”, the source stated.

When contacted, the airline admitted that the refusal of NCAA to grant it the much needed air operator certificate had stalled the commencement of flight operations.
The interim Managing Director of the airline, Dapo Olumide, while highlighting the tedious processes involved in obtaining an AOC, however, said the airline is working round the clock to ensure that requirements to obtain the licence are met.

“There is a process. There’s no magic wand. There is a process to issuing an AOC. And when you have an AOC and an ATL you can commence commercial scheduled operations.
“The date is largely based on the process that we are following to gain the AOC. It is not something that can be issued because they like my face, it is a process that you have to go through the five steps and you have to go through all of them.

“We are working around the clock, and the team members setting up this airline are working hard for us to meet those requirements.
“These are very stringent requirements, which is why the ATL that we just received took this long to be issued, because there are processes to go through. No magic wand. And we are going through the same thing with the AOC and when we have that certificate, we will commence operations”, the Air Nigeria CEO stated.

Apart from the process of getting approval for an air operator certificate which is presently stalled, the airline is also faced with the challenge of securing aircraft needed for flight operations.

Sources in the nation’s aviation sector told our correspondent that owing to government’s overbearing influence on the airline, many partner airlines and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) are reluctant to lease or sell aircraft to the airline without securing all the necessary paperwork.

Regulators and investors are said to be worried with the hurried manner the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, is pushing for the takeoff of the airline, despite the Federal Government owning only five percent stake in the company.
According to documents seen by BH, while 49 per cent of Nigeria Air will be owned by equity partners and 46 per cent by Nigerians, the Federal Government will own just five per cent of the shares.

Despite being a minority stakeholder in the project, the government had been at the forefront of driving the establishment of the airline.

“Why should the government, with only five percent stake, be the one to be taking all the important decisions like the appointment of management and staff, purchase or leasing of aircraft for the company and other major decisions that majority owners, with the support of an active board should be saddled with.

“This obvious overbearing influence on the airline is what has spooked stakeholders involved in the new company.
“I think they (investors) want more clarity and stability before committing men and resources into the new airline. They are foot dragging until they are sure of what they are getting into. That is part of the reasons that the airline has not been able to commence operations”, noted a source in the aviation ministry who did not want his identity disclosed.

However, while explaining that there are ongoing discussions with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), the Nigeria Air interim boss lamented difficulties in acquiring aircraft for the airline.

“It takes time to bring an aircraft out of storage and there is a further complication, as you’ve seen in the media, with a lot of flights in Europe and America being cancelled or delayed.

“And this is because most people were laid off during COVID and they don’t have enough staff in the airports to turn around flights. So, there’s a lot of cancellations going on.

“So, it’s very difficult to get aircraft. But we have discussions going on with the OEMs and we are just waiting for the terms of the agreement.
“We already have the aircraft identified because that is one of the requirements for the NCAA, but we are just trying to perfect titles and so on. So that’s where we are with the aircraft as its sourcing is still in process and we are looking at that”, the CEO assured.

Confirming Olumide’s difficulty in obtaining an air operators certificate, the Director-General NCAA, Musa Nuhu, said the promoters of the airline have applied for AOC and the process is still ongoing.

He, however, refused to give assurances on when the license would be issued. According to the NCAA DG, like all other airlines that apply for AOC, there are some issues that are not completely under the purview of the NCAA such as seeking security clearance for the applicant.

Meanwhile, opposition have continued to trail the presentation of an Air Transport Licence to Nigeria Air by NCAA, with aviation stakeholders describing the process as crooked.
The President, Association of Foreign Airlines and Representatives in Nigeria, Kingsley Nwokoma, argued that the government had been silent on whether or not it had gotten investors for the carrier.

“The minister has been on this for a while and apparently it looks like one of the key projects he wants to achieve before leaving office. This has taken a long time.

“But for me, it is important that we have investors in place because, of course, it is not the government that is to fully run the airline. We’ve been told that Nigerians will also have the opportunity to invest.

“However, we are not hearing much on that (investment) part of the story, we are not seeing the process. Well, perhaps, the government may assume that if it gets the licences out, that may spur investors. So, let’s see how it works,” Nwokoma concluded.

Also speaking, local airlines under the aegis of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) demanded that the process to float a national carrier must be transparent.

The body in a statement made available to BH, noted that though the AON is not opposed to its establishment, the idea of floating a national carrier has become obsolete all over the world.

“The process is not transparent, is shrouded in secrecy and being championed by Nigerians and foreigners, unknown to Nigerians and various stakeholders.

“It is pertinent to note that there is no prospectus issued for public scrutiny or investment appraisal in the process of setting up the proposed carrier.

“The so-called national carrier is a private airline being promoted as a national entity using taxpayers and government resources.
“There is no way an enterprise where the Federal Government is said to hold five per cent equity can be called a national carrier. Private people should not use the commonwealth of Nigeria for their private business.

“We, in the AON, oppose vehemently any decision or action that is tantamount to selling the country’s commonwealth to any foreign airline for free or for peanuts,” the association said in a statement signed by its President, Abdulmunaf Sarina, and endorsed by 10 chairmen and chief executives of some domestic airlines.

In his own response, a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Roland Iyayi, said the Federal Government should not have set up Nigeria Air, calling the project a misplaced priority.

The former NAMA boss said rather than getting involved, the government should have concentrated on assisting local airlines to ensure that Nigeria’s flag is carried worldwide and not necessarily about one carrier.

“The government’s role should necessarily be one of facilitating trade and business rather than being the business person.

“Government has no business being in business, except, of course, to facilitate. In America, you do not have any government-owned airline and they’re all successful.

“How’s that possible? It’s possible because the environment in which they operate has been made conducive to allow their businesses to thrive.

“So, I would expect the government to do exactly similar things to ensure that our domestic carriers are able to survive even in the face of all of this”.

Iyayi, who is the President/CEO of Top Brass Aviation, also claimed that the Federal Government has not been transparent enough on the national carrier project.

“We are supposed to have been told so many things every step of the way, but that hasn’t happened. For instance, we just heard in the news recently that the national carrier has been issued an air transport license. The air transport license is actually issued by the Ministry, more or less.

“Though, yes, they could have circumvented the required processes as required by all the airlines to facilitate it. I did not see anywhere adverts were done by the Ministry on behalf of the national carrier to indicate that they’re looking for no objection, because you’re supposed to take out adverts in a newspaper over a period of time so that people can come forward with their objections and they’d be reviewed.

“That didn’t happen. So, what essentially that means for me is that the government just decided by that to provide the necessary paperwork to ensure that this airline comes into being. So, obviously, the government has not been transparent enough to allow people to see what they’re doing, to be able to decide whether or not it makes sense or otherwise”, he said.