Mr Allen Onyema, the chairman/CEO of Air Peace, Nigeria’s largest airline, who is also the vice-president of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), has described airline operators as some of the country’s most patriotic citizens offering services under a most excruciating condition which no foreign airline can cope with, saying given the necessary support, they can compete with any foreign carrier

Talking of challenges that operators have in recent times, he said “If you are talking about foreign exchange (forex), those challenges are still there. It is very difficult to procure forex and when you see it, it comes at a high cost and our ticket fare, the only source of revenue for the airlines, is in naira and remembers all our operations are dollar-denominated except the catering that you bring onboard the aircraft. So it is a very huge challenge for the airlines in the country.

Then you talk about aviation fuel. When aviation fuel was N400 per litre, we cried out. We never knew the thing could go to over N900 one day. So you can imagine the unit cost per seat on the aircraft when you look at the kind of aircraft Nigerian airlines use, it is about N67,000 to N68,000 per unit cost, that is we must not charge below that amount and anything below that amount, you run into a problem. But you see airlines charging N50,000, N40,000 just to have some revenue but at the end of the day that is not sustainable at all. Something may give way. But it is happening.

“President Muhammadu Buhari came to our rescue by intervening in the aviation fuel crisis; making available a certain quantity of fuel to us, not for free but at a controlled price instead of the market price. Though it is not steady and not enough, but it is very helpful.

The permanent solution to the fuel issue is for Nigeria to refine its own aviation fuel. As long as we continue to import aviation fuel, we will continue to have this problem. We have crude oil, I don’t see the reason why Nigeria should be importing the by-products of crude oil,” he added.

On the extent forex has affected the operations of airlines, ge said “You don’t know what we go through. Many of the foreign maintenance organisations sometimes threaten to sell off your planes, sell off your engines because they don’t believe sometimes, we have the naira but we don’t have the dollars. You don’t just go to the market and buy any dollar. If you buy cash, you may not be able to transfer it. Many of us don’t want to go through third parties.

Because of this scarcity of foreign exchange, Nigerian Airlines have been exposed so dangerously to outsiders wanting to cash in, into the unfortunate situation to either dupe us or put us in trouble because some would come and tell you, ‘I have $2m in Hong Kong’, they would give you a good rate and tell us who you want us to transfer to.

We don’t want to be involved in that kind of thing because we don’t know the sources of the funds. You don’t know if they are products of corruption, drug business or terrorism. So it is very difficult.

“So we all wait until we get legitimate funds through the Central Bank or through our banks and they don’t come that easy. And it is not the fault of CBN, the Central Bank only disburses what it has; it has to do with our earning capacity. If we don’t have it, we don’t have it and everybody has to understand,” he explained.

Onyema added that “Nigerian airlines are very strong. Nigerian airlines have capacity. Nigerian airlines do what foreign airlines and others cannot do. Given the circumstances that we find ourselves in; if you bring the foreign airlines to come and operate in this country as indigenous airlines, with all their money but are not going to be given any preferential treatment, so they operate under the same circumstances as we operate, operate under the circumstance where in the morning you don’t know if you have fuel to fuel your aircraft. You have a 6:30 flight and you are still looking for fuel at 8 o’clock and the vendors have said there is scarcity of aviation fuel.

“Even when you buy, the price you buy in the morning may not be the same three hours later.

Let the foreign airlines come and face the circumstances we face in this country without being given preferential treatment. Let them come where they said your aircraft would be inspected and you have to wait. Let them come and stay in a terminal where over 2000 people would pass through one screening machine. Let them come and go to Abuja airport where 10 airlines are scrambling for a small space. Let them come and find themselves in that crowd where there are no conveyor belts and they have to carry their loads on their heads. Let them come and perform, let us see.

“Foreign airlines will never last more than 72 hours before they walk away. So let us give credit to the Nigerian airlines, they are doing patriotic jobs for the country.

The truth is that Nigerian airlines have been so demonised by even people who are supposed to protect them and of course the flying public. If they knew the truth, they would give kudos to these airlines,” he added.(Daily Trust)