Nigerians Invested N780bn in Aircraft Acquisition in 6 Years

The Acting Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Joyce Nkemakolam, has said airlines and private aircraft owners have invested about $4.5 billion (about N779, 100,000, 000) in the acquisition of aircraft in the last six years.



Nkemakolam made this disclosure yesterday in her keynote address at the Nigeria Institute of Advanced Legal Studies’ 2013 Training Workshop on Aviation and Space Law at the University of Lagos.


He said within this period, Nigerian airlines have introduced modern aircraft and equipment as the old DC 9 series, Boeing 737-200 series, Boeing 727 and BAC 1-11 that hitherto populated Nigeria’s airspace had given way to the New Generation (NG) aircraft, the Boeing 737-700 NG, New Bombardier CRJ 900series, Dash-8, Q400 and others.


Speaking on the topic, “Safety and the Nigerian Aviation Industry,” Nkemakolam, who was represented by NCAA company secretary and legal adviser, Pollie Okonkwo, said notwithstanding the spate of accidents that Nigeria has had in the past, especially the June 3, 2013 crash of flight J9 992 owned by Dana Airlines, tremendous progress has been in the sector in terms of safety.


“The safety reform agenda of the federal government which was anchored on the recertification of the industry, infrastructural rehabilitation, fleet renewal and manpower development have successfully changed the course of aviation in Nigeria.”


He remarked that it was the same reform process which is aimed at improving safety that gave rise to the on-going recertification exercise for airlines and which has reduced Air Operator Certificate (AOC) holders from about 50 to 17.


“It is also important to mention that between 2003 to date, some of the airlines on their own folded up their operation largely due to economic recession that had affected the industry globally and inability to comply with the heightened regulatory standards introduced by the Authority.”

The Acting Director General said in addition to the aircraft already acquired, Nigerian operators have ordered for more NG aircraft, “For instance, Arik has ordered for Dreamliner, Boeing 787, 747-400 series and the Airbus A380.”

Nkemakolam noted that this milestone was achieved due to the domestication and implementation of the Cape Town Convention by Nigeria.

“The Federal Government has encouraged the industry by the removal of Customs duty on aircraft and equipment. The revolving grant which airlines can access is also a step in the right direction.”

He said in spite of the progress being made in the sector, there are still a lot of challenges, including inadequate funding; adding that the industry is capital intensive so huge amount of money is required for infrastructural development.

Comparing the budgets made in the last four years, the Acting Director General compared the funds expended in the sector to that of other developing countries like Trinidad and Tobago, which spent $5 billion on infrastructural development in the last four years; Pakistan which spent $ 10 billion on aviation infrastructural development in the same period.

There are also Turkey that spent $40 billion on the same infrastructural development from 2009 till date and other countries like China, India, Singapore, South Africa, Senegal and Ethiopia that have spent hugely in their aviation sector during this period.

Meanwhile, all the police command in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja will soon get helicopters to upscale air surveillance operations aimed at curbing dangerous crimes like armed robbery and facilitate prompt response in case of emergency.

President Goodluck Jonathan made the disclosure yesterday while speaking at the 2013 Police week and inauguration of some police equipment at the Eagles Square, Abuja.

The equipment inaugurated yesterday include seven helicopters, 13 Amoured Personnel Carriers, 275 patrol vehicles and 20 Toyota Hilux armored pickup vans and other gadgets.

The president urged the Police to ensure proper maintenance of the equipment at their disposal and embark on constant training of its rank and file to put them in good shape to combat current security challenges.

Calling on the policemen to respect the citizens' rights in the discharge of their duties, he said: "I expect that these facilities will enhance police capability in prevention of crimes, and improving response time in emergency situation. It shall be instruments of justice and protection of all men of goodwill given as it will be deployed and utilised strategically to achieve and accelerate utmost result.

"For us to continue to use these equipment, one thing I urge the police to do is the issue of maintenance. As a nation, we are not too good in maintaining what we have. Presently, that aspect is improving because my reaction to the armed force, the navy, and the air force, we have gotten a very formidable team that are now maintaining their equipment.

"The police should do the same so that these equipment will last the time they expected to last. Also, we must emphasis the need to train. For you to remain galant, for you to remain functional in whatever you do, and especially in security tactics, training is vital.

"You must train on the job; you must train with the equipment so that our men and women in police force will have confidence in themselves so that they will continue to operate as gallant men and women.

"The police must be well equipped and kitted to protect us while on land, while in water and also in the air. Of course you see the helicopter we commission and I believe my commitment is that every state command must have a helicopter.

"You have seen the commitment of government, that’s why we set up the special fund. A situation where armed robbers could take over a place and operating for hours and no challenge must be a thing of the past. And that is why we want to invest in air power for the Nigerian police."

He said, "This is quite trying moment for this country in terms security. For various reasons, a number of our police officers have lost their lives while serving their father land. In this unique moment, I crave your indulgence for all of us to stand up for one minute of silence for these police officers that have lost their lives.

"We have challenges from the south to the north, from the east to the west, but the police stay awake as security personnel. Accept our condolences and let me assure you that government will continue to remember you loved ones who had worked and served us. I want us also to continue to remember you members of their family.

"The Police have the constitutional role of enforcing the law, keeping the peace and protecting lives and property which as exceedingly vital for societal fitness, well being and development.

"For police to be effective, of course, government must also provide the police with what it require to work with. The tools must be provided. That is one of the reasons we are here today and also to commission some of the items and we will continue to do more."

Also while speaking, the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar noted that the Police week which was last celebrated in 1976 is providing opportunity for the Nigerian Police Force to reappraise itself.

"Above all, the long term objective of the police week celebrations is to bridge the increasing widening gap between the public and the police and give positive connotation to popular saying that "Police is your friend.”

Abubakar assured the public of the police commitment to the protection of lives and property of the citizens as well as remaining accountable to them.

In his brief remarks, the Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade expressed appreciation to President Jonathan and urged the public to support the police to do their job by providing useful information to them.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/nigerians-invested-n780bn-in-aircraft-acquisition-in-6-years

Culled from Thisday Online

Occupational accidents, diseases lead to 4% loss in GDP – Arik Air

The largest carrier in the country, Arik Air yesterday estimated that occupational accidents and diseases in

work places result in an annual four per cent loss in global gross domestic product, GDP, which is equivalent

to US$2.8trn, in direct and indirect costs of occupational injuries and diseases.


The airline in a statement signed yesterday by its spokesman, Mr. Banji Ola attributed the statistics to the

International Labour Organisation, ILO.

The statement was issued to mark the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. The airline however

reiterated its readiness to safe and healthy working environment to all its employees, contractors and others

affected by its operations.

Ola quoted the Senior Vice President, Operations, Arik Air, Capt. Ado Sanusi as saying that safety is

everyone’s responsibility.

Sanusi said Arik Air is proud to be associated with ILO and other relevant bodies worldwide in celebrating

the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, which focuses on ‘The Prevention of Occupational

Diseases.’

Sanusi estimated that around 5,500 to 6,300 work-related deaths occur every day as a result of various

types of workrelated diseases (occupational diseases) and that an estimated 160 million cases of non-fatal

work-related diseases occur annually.
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/occupational-accidents-diseases-lead-to-4-loss-in-gdp-arik-air/

Culled from National Mirror

Arik, SAHCOL get awards

NIGERIA’s flag carrier airline, Arik Air, has emerged as the Company of the Year 2012 at the Leadership Annual Conference and Awards ceremony held at the International Conference Centre Abuja on Tuesday, April 16, 2013.

The airline was lauded for its role in aviation in both local and African region. At the heart of the airline’s operation is a management footing that places travelling guests first, even in an extremely challenging business environment,” the organizers observed in the award citation.

Earlier, the Chairman of Leadership Group and organiser of the event, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, said the process of choosing winners for the various award categories by the Editors of Leadership has always been rigorous and painstaking with debates, discussions and casting of votes stressing that he was very proud of this year’s choice of award winners.

The award was presented by the Gambian High Commissioner in Nigeria, Angela Colley-Iheme and received on behalf of Arik Air by the Managing Director/Executive Vice President, Mr. Chris Ndulue.

According to Ndulue: “By adding the Leadership Company of the Year 2012 Award to our array of laurels, we have shown clearly that we are not relenting in our efforts at making Arik Air the airline of choice in this part of the world. We make no pretences when we say we are bringing world class standards in aviation to the region and will continue to improve on our services to the delight of our valued guests.”

Also, the Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) was rewarded as the Best Aviation Cargo Handling Company of the year, 2013.

The award was presented to the company in Lagos, recently at the 2013 Nigeria Transport Awards and Lectures, organized by the Transport Day Newspaper, the “mouthpiece of transportation and logistics in Nigeria”.

The ceremony, which was graced by Crème de la Crème in aviation, automobile, maritime, and various service providers in the transport and logistics industry in Nigeria, appreciated SAHCOL for its outstanding high quality performance and operational excellence, track records and value creation in the Nigerian Air Transport industry.

Meanwhile, the company has recently acquired and commissioned critical ground handling equipment, which drew commendations and endorsement from the representatives of  foreign airlines in Nigeria, domestic airlines and other stakeholders in the aviation industry present at the event.

It noted that under the leadership of Olu Owolabi, as the Managing Director, the business modules of SAHCOL has been upgraded, which has ushered into the performance of the company efficient and speedy service delivery, state-of-the-art equipment, fleet replacement and massive infrastructural development.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=119251:arik-sahcol-get-awards-&catid=32:business-travel&Itemid=563
Culled from The Guardian Online

Arik keeps business on despite domestic travel crisis

Despite the crisis that has eaten deep into the operations and profits of domestic airlines in the country thereby crippling the system, Arik Air may have kept on with its operations as business continues to look up for the airline.

Even though there is the general problem of shrinking operational funds for the sector, Arik Air has continued to maintain its large business areas across the routes both domestic and regional.

Apart from making good use of the festive period to increase frequencies, many of the flight frequencies initiated during the major crisis of the airlines, especially, the one that grounded the entire fleet of Aero, second largest domestic airline which controls about 34.86 percent of airline business in the country, for two week, continued to be as the airline sees profit in having an ‘every hourly’ flight on the triangular route of Lagos-Abuja-Port-Harcourt.

“We are doing a lot of things right and that is why we are where we are. You know when the crisis was on, this is not to spite any company, we increased our flights to the ‘golden triangle’ to 8 flights daily and we called it ‘Abuja-Port-Harcourt shuttle’, we made sure that there was flight at every one to two hours especially between Lagos and Abuja.

“We put that in place to cope with demands of the travelling public on the golden triangle. Apart from the past crisis, the immediate past fell within the Easter period so the pressure was too much on us. We therefore increased flights to Uyo, Enugu, Calabar and Asaba to cater for the travellers,” a source close to the airline said.

Apart from the domestic routes, Arik Air also seized the opportunity on the regional scene to increase frequencies to Accra.

“You know the regional route is not as flexible as domestic but we increased our flights from two to three on Lagos-Accra but we have since reverted the services,” he said.

 Analysts say “the sector crisis inflicted by unexplainable disagreements with unions and lack of operational funds naturally created a market for Arik which also used the occasion to bloat its revenue. That was a lot of money for the airline.

“Recall that the crisis that crippled Air Nigeria, which used to control 5.56 percent of the market started with  the unions then to insolvency; that of Aero was mainly union problem. I believe that as much as the union problems would have been contained, that of funds was a major problem of the airlines,” an analyst said.

There is no gainsaying that domestic airlines are in dire straits and there should be an urgent intervention to salvage the situation from further plunging.

http://businessdaynigeria.com/arik-keeps-business-despite-domestic-travel-crisis

Culled from Businessday Online

NCAA warns foreign airlines against revenue automation violation

The Acting Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Mr. Joyce Daniel Nkemakolam, has warned foreign airlines operating into Nigeria against violating its directive on revenue automation.


A statement from the aviation sector regulatory authority on Tuesday said the acting director-general was miffed by the high number of airlines that had not complied with the requirements.

He therefore gave the erring airlines two weeks to comply or face sanctions.

He, however, commended some of the foreign airlines that had been complying.

The statement by the General Manager, Public Affairs, NCAA, Mr. Fan Ndubuoke, said the riot act was handed down at a meeting with the foreign airlines in Lagos on Tuesday.

According to NCAA’s regulations regarding revenue collection, the operating airlines are mandated to forward derivable data at the end of every flight operation to the regulatory agency.

The statement said, “These data are forwarded using NCAA’s AVITECH(Aviation Technology, the contracting firm handling the automation), portal for easy and transparent transaction to facilitate appropriate billing for the Ticket Sales Charge and Cargo Sales Charge.”

It added, “At the close of any flight, the data required by NCAA/AVITECH for billing is to cover the following components: flight number, flight date, ticket number, ticket class, flight route, originating country, currency of sale, basic fare, YQ, security tax, airport tax, total fare and rate of exchange.”

While some airlines requested for more time to synchronise their operating system with the portal, some were discovered to be contending with some parts of the components, especially, the YQ, security tax and airport tax.
However, the DG said this was unacceptable as they were stipulated country taxes, applied all over the world.
The statement said, “The NCAA is frowning at the delay in compliance as the alternate measure is manual composition, which is cumbersome, time consuming and fraught with human errors. This error margin, even if it is minimal, can lead to loss of revenue.”

Nkemakolam therefore strongly advised those airlines that had not complied to integrate their operations to the NCAA portal for seamless data transfer.
Most of the foreign airlines representatives were in attendance.

http://www.punchng.com/business/transport/ncaa-warns-foreign-airlines-against-revenue-automation-violation/
Culled from Punch Online

Nigeria plays key roles in African aviation – Uriesi

The Nigeria aviation will continue to play key roles in aviation development in Africa as demonstrated by its massive infrastructural investment in airport developments.


The Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mr. George Uriesi, stated this while speaking to newsmen at the meeting of the Airports Council International, African region, in Morocco.

Uriesi, who spoke on the remodeling project going on in Nigeria, said aviation offered enormous opportunities for massive economic growth and development in the region.

A statement by the General Manager, Corporate Communications, Mr. Yakubu Dati, stated that the FAAN managing director elaborated on the designation of airports as regional hubs to maximise their potential.

He also said the development of cargo ports was aimed at opening up the country in order to benefit from its full potential as an agro-allied economy.

He said the conference fell within the framework of the initiative introduced by ICAO and ACI to promote safety and had allowed stakeholders to contribute proactively to the requirements of a safe and secure air transportation system.

The conference was also meant to sensitise participants on the importance of runway safety and the importance of collaboration among all stakeholders in the air transport chain, it stated.

In their separate presentations in their working groups, Capt Henry Omeogu and Hajia Salamatu Eluma, both directors from FAAN gave useful insights to progress made in FAAN and Nigeria in general.
Mr. Peter Onyeri while delivering a paper on runway safety, spoke on the strategies for a sustainable safety in the African sub region.

The ACI Africa, which is referred to as the voice of African airports, representing and serving the African airport community, has membership of 50 African countries in the sub region.

The conference was supported by major industry players namely: the International Air Transport Association, the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ association, the Civic Air Navigation Services Organisation, the Flight Safety Foundation and other organisations of the air transport industry
http://www.punchng.com/business/transport/nigeria-plays-key-roles-in-african-aviation-uriesi/
Culled from Punch Online

Arumemi-Ikhide: Nigerian Banks Only Guaranteed our Loans for Aircraft

                Chairman of Arik Air, Chief Joseph Arumemi –Ikhid


The Chairman of Arik Air, Chief Joseph Arumemi –Ikhide, spoke with Chinedu Eze on how the airline became indebted to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), the challenges the airline faces operating in the country, among others




The impression many Nigerians have is that Arik Air is being drowned by the huge debt it owes AMCON and others, that it may not survive the next few years. How did this debt come about?

Thank you very much for your question on Arik debt profile. As far as I know, it is very difficult for a group of people to raise over $1.5 billion to purchase new aircraft. Even if you have such amount of money, it will be wise for you to raise some money from the banks or other financial institutions. This was what we did because we have the contacts, we have the pedigree, we are known in Europe and because we had worked in Europe we were able to access these funds. And of course due to the support of the present Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was in the World Bank and later the Finance Minister then. Her successor, Mrs. Nenadi Usman also supported us.
So we were able to access these funds. US Exim Bank gave money to us. Madam Christine Largade who is now the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was the Finance Minister of France at that time, also helped us. A lot of players came in. I will just say by God’s grace, we were able to secure the credit facility. Prior to the funds from Europe, we got financing from the US Exim Bank for the Boeing 737-700 and 737-800. The Bombardier CRJ 900s were financed by the Exim Bank of Canada. By June this year we would have finished paying for them. That tells you how aggressive they are in getting back their money.

And most of these people don’t have confidence in Nigeria and that was why they gave us short-term loans. In other parts of the world, such facility is repaid within 12 to 15 years, but this one we were given less than seven years and it affected our cash flow seriously.

The same thing happened with Boeing 737 acquisitions. We acquired credit facility from US Exim Bank and we were getting the same terms, which was very aggressive. Of course, we were ready to go international; we wanted to go to London and other parts of the world. We were sourcing for aircraft and opportunity came from Airbus and we tried to look for financial assistance, so it fell through the European Credit Agency (ECA). They have never done this to any African government, not to talk of any African company but through various contacts and God’s support and being at the right place at the right time we were able to secure credit facility.

We met Madam Christine Largade at that time and she obliged. After looking at all our documents and making background checks on me, she obliged us. During that period the then Managing Director of Union Bank, Mr. Bath Ebong, said he was interested in providing the local guarantee. So when you look at it, all the financial institutions that gave us the money followed one pattern; that means that a Nigerian bank has to guarantee the loans. This means that the Nigerian bank is the guarantor but the funds to purchase the aircraft came from overseas. They passed it to us through the Nigerian bank to make sure they get back their money.


Mind you, we were paper company when we started (start-up airline), most of these credit agencies, ask anywhere in the world, don’t give money to start-up airlines. They don’t. You need to have been operating for at least five years or six years before the give you money, but in our case, I think we are one of the very few companies in the world that they gave money, as a paper airline. And that was why they passed the facility through trade finance and the trade finance minister had to get a local bank which would serve as guarantor.

Let me say quickly that no money was raised by the Nigerian banks. I am sure that those in the banking industry will explain it better.
But we negotiated with each aircraft manufacturer and the credit agency approved the price of the aircraft and paid the manufacturer and it was assumed as if the Nigerian bank borrowed the money and passed it to us. Such transaction before the banking reforms was known as contingency liabilities; you don’t write the full value in your books; you only write a percentage of it. So it was a tripartite agreement between us and the credit agencies and the Nigerian bank and another agreement between us and the credit agency. All these things are very complicated but both the Nigerian lawyers and the lawyers abroad worked very hard and had all these documents signed. Let me say I thank God that till today we have not defaulted. That is why we still have the 23 aircraft still with us.


On the Airbus acquisition they were supposed to be three aircraft, that is the A340-500; we took two and we did inform Union Bank at that time that if ECA gave us the loan to be repaid in seven years, there was no way we would pay up because it would affect our cash flow if we have three aircraft. First of all we were starting a new route, going to London, developing the route which had matured for our competitors and we were just coming in, so to reduce the pressure on our cash flow we requested that they extend the loan repayment to 12 years. They agreed and said they were going to refinance it either from the Far East or somewhere; that we could look at it and the export credit agency in China or Hong Kong would take over from the ECA.

So because of that we stopped the delivery of the third one and said let us get these two aircraft and let us make sure that the new credit agency could take it over so that we would not stretch our cash flow. I think that we had paid for about two years before Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) came in. we never defaulted one day.

Somehow, there was a banking reform and a new managing director for Union Bank came in and she said she didn’t want to take such responsibility. A lot of things went in. Mind you again, we ordered for some aircraft and Union Bank said it was going to finance it; that is narrow body aircraft. We made some deposit to the aircraft manufacturing company, but when the new management of Union Bank came they said no, they would not finance it and even wanted the refund of the initial payment, but the manufacturing company, which is Boeing, said you don’t do that. We knew Boeing was going to use legal means to get the bank and Arik to honour the agreement. It was a tripartite agreement. Boeing was angrier with the bank than us. They made the initial payment and made it clear that it was a payment by Union Bank on behalf of Arik. There was a time all the banks wanted to come together and finance a new aircraft for Arik and later Union Bank pulled out and said they wanted to do their own and the whole plan fell like pack of cards.

Looking at the situation of Nigerian aviation that time and the perception of the country, if the reneging on that agreement with Boeing was allowed to go on it would have ended up in big problem that it would have become very difficult for anybody from Nigeria to access fund from international credit agencies. So the best thing was to save the situation. We managed to save the situation by raising fund from other sources which prevented Boeing from taking any action.


The new banking reform said that the total value of the guarantee should be written in the books of the Union Bank, instead of a percentage of it. That was another problem because each of the aircraft cost over $240 million. Of course we have paid some money for the aircraft but two of them (the Airbus 340-500) plus the other ones, so you will be talking about $500 million.

Although we had paid HSBC for two years out of the seven years which would end in 2016, so it was taken to AMCON.

AMCON said, okay, you know the period is short. The Managing Director of AMCON, Mustapha Chike-Obi did a good job. He went to Exim Bank and ECA and asked why they were giving Arik seven years, when Air India and Air Malaysia were getting 12 to 15 years. They replied and said that it was due to the country risk; that once they were comfortable with Nigeria they would consider stretching such loans to 12 to 15 years.

He found out that what I was saying was true because if you get that facility for seven years it is very short. I told the new management at Union Bank that the bank we took the loan from promised to refinance it to longer term but the management said it was not interested in it; they want to offload it from their books. So that was the situation we found ourselves.

It is not that all our aircraft are under that debt; that was why we told AMCON to give us the airplanes that are ours out of the 23 aircraft and take the rest but they said no. This involves the two Airbus A340-500.


AMCON has been of great assistance. We are supposed to get some money from the intervention fund to reduce our interest rate from the banks. N26 billion was approved for us as intervention fund, but it has been with AMCON now for the past five weeks. We have not accessed it, and it is even to refinance our debts in the bank; not to give us to go and spend. Where we are paying 21 per cent we will not be able to pay three to four per cent.


This is loan and we are paying it back. It will just help us to boost our cash flow. By the way we have our aircraft which are getting to five, six years now. Within this period we want to go for heavy checks and we are not waiting for them to get to seven years, so we have started now phasing them for heavy maintenance. We are doing the first heavy checks now, which are C1 checks. Normally we should wait for 2015, but we decided to bring them forward and start doing them gradually so that we space them out. We are also expecting two more aircraft next year to join our fleet. The new Boeing Skyline is coming next year.


Over time we will have our aircraft spaced out and then we continue to do our checks. So that is the price we have to pay for delivering our airlines almost at the same time, within a year and they are all new aircraft. So the only sensible thing we need to do is to bring the heavy checks forward; if not, by 2015, we will shut down. So this year we are taking five aircraft for maintenance; next year we will do five or six. We did some late last year. We are doing all our normal checks, all the base checks...B1, B2 and then we have done some C1. In fact, six months before 2015 we must have completed all our checks.



There have been assumptions about the ownership of Arik and how it is managed. I want you to clear the air on who owns Arik?

I don’t manage the airline. Dr Michael Arumemi-Ikhide and Chris Ndulue are the ones who are running the airline. There is a lot of misconception in Nigeria and people conjure up a lot of ideas in their minds, but we don’t work like that here. The way I was brought up in the United States is that management is a collective responsibility. Anytime you have a management where only one person is taking the decisions it is wrong and I try to inculcate this in my colleagues here. Whatever we want to do there is no way one person can sit down and take a decision; no. We usually deliberate over issues and sometimes I am overruled. For example, the last salary increase they did they did it without my knowledge. I only got to know later but unfortunately they did not pay me one kobo. I don’t get paid in Arik. I don’t get one kobo from Arik; you can find out.


I have the joy to build the airline from scratch until the aircraft started flying. There were challenges, but I wanted to show that the black man is capable of owning and operating an airline. Airline is a very, very sensitive business and it needs a lot of discipline to operate. Our operational status is that when we started we had expatriates everywhere, but many people thought that we were not realistic; no. we brought in expatriates to lay down good foundation and we started scouting for Nigerians who were going to work with us. For the first four years we had a lot of expatriates, including managing directors, head of flight operations but today we have head of operations who is a Nigerian; not just being a Nigerian, he was groomed. He has a passion for the airline.


On the issue of management, these gentlemen work day and night and they have a passion because they grew within the system. And of course we are lucky that we have Captain Ado Sanusi who has garnered experience in NAMA (as managing director) and other places and he came in and grew within the system. He worked under an expatriate flight director. He has also attended many courses. He is now the deputy managing director to Chris Ndulue and also the vice president Flight Operations. So gradually we are indigenising the company. We also have senor personnel from other countries in West Africa. What we are trying to build is a Nigerian project and West African project.

Then the other issue about ownership of Arik, I would have dismissed those assumption about the ownership by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo or Dr Peter Odili. If you ask anybody working in Arik he will tell you that he has never seen Obasanjo or Odili step into the company. In fact, Dr Odili said that he doesn’t like flying us so that they will not accuse him of owning Arik. Dr Odili is a good friend of mine. He is a noble person; he is a gentleman, very honest and straightforward person. He has no shares in this company. He has nothing to do with the company, except relating with me as a person and as his brother and friend.


Chief Obasanjo has no financial interest in this company, even though he instigated me to come to airline business because after the crash of 2005 and 2006, when he had open discussion on the way forward for the aviation industry in Nigeria and he started searching for credible Nigerians that could establish airlines. That was when he allowed Richard Branson to come in (to establish Virgin Nigeria). He had series of meetings with South African investors who gave him a lot of stringent conditions and he asked: Where are you Nigerians? He urged Nigerians to come out, promising to them all the support and he floated the idea of zero duty on aircraft imports and spares. Obasanjo had very good ideas to encourage Nigerians to come out and establish airlines.

That was the kind of thing the Late Margret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister did for Virgin Atlantic. At that time there was no private carrier in Britain and they wanted who will actually compete with the Americans. Obasanjo wanted to tow that model and since he pioneered that idea he was very supportive to us. But he does not have any share in Arik. Sometimes he flies us in his travels. There was a time he would have flown with us to New York but his schedule was different from ours. He told me he is always excited by Arik’s progress. So we want to use this opportunity to appreciate him; appreciate the Late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua and President Goodluck Jonathan too. The presidents who ruled this country since we started have been very supportive. Arik Air is owned by me and members of my family. That is how it is, just as Bombardier is owned by the Bombardier family. Dangote company is owned by Alhaji Aliko Dangote, so I don’t understand why this controversy.


On our financial management, I wish to state that our account is audited by the PriceWaterhouseCoopers If we are sharing money as alleged PriceWaterhouseCoopers would have declared that because ours is a public account. And what are we sharing money for? In airline business, as Richard Branson said, you have to be a billionaire in order to become a millionaire. This means that it sheds your weight financially. Airline operation needs a lot of infrastructure. We need to get a maintenance hangar; we need to have simulator. We have built a new training centre, which cost us a lot of money. You need to see the wonderful work Captain Ado has done. I am very proud of it. If that is the way we are sharing money, so be it. We are sharing money by putting in infrastructure, by having our operational control centre (OCC), which is the best in Africa; by having our maintenance control centre that we are establishing now. If we are sharing money to various departments in order to improve them, well, thanks be to God.



What is your debt profile to the aviation agencies?

I want to thank you for asking this question and thank my colleagues who are working here. They must be patriots and determined people for them to brook the amount of propaganda and image smearing we go through every day. Any fickle minded person would have thrown in the towel and walk away. But they know the truth.


We have been paying the agencies. Let me divert a bit, we have a former general manager of Nigeria Airways Limited who worked for us as a consultant and he made a statement: that many people who are criticising Arik are doing so because by our presence we are preventing the government from bringing money to start a national airline. That is our offence. So the anger is on Arik because of our posture. We bought new aircraft; we are flying.


So people still want that national cake, where you will bring money they will share it; you will argue about whether the Managing Director is from the south; the General Manager is from the north. I will give you an example, when we took over this place, there was a DC 10 aircraft which belonged to the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited. DC 10 has three engines. One engine was sent to India for repairs, the other engine was sent to somewhere in UK; the third engine was sent to Miami, the US. So, it was difficult for them to agree because of the problem of sharing, they could not send the engines to one place. That will tell you the level of mismanagement in the old airline.


Up till today they accuse us of buying Nigeria Airways. We did not buy Nigeria Airways; we only bought property belonging to Nigeria Airways. Some of the workers in the aviation agencies came from the former national carrier and by alleging that we bought the airline they vent their anger on us. They said Chief Olusegun Obasanjo handed over the airline to us. We bought this property through a court order. The person that sold it to us was a liquidator and all the transaction took place by court order. So I don’t understand why people are making this noise; making statements that are not right.


Because of these grievances they would wish we don’t exist. One of them who is in Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria will bring bogus bills and say, pay! When I asked him, what do you mean by that? He said; you people have money; you said you have money, you are buying new planes, oya, here is the bill. But we have showed the FAAN Managing Director that we have paid our debts to the agency, because he said we have not paid since we started. We have made payments but because of several changes in these agencies, a new person will come and said we owe a certain amount of money.



We have written to the banks and asked them to confirm the payment we have made which is N3 billion and the banks have gone to the archives and we have urged them to expedite action. So that we prove to the present management of FAAN that we have paid some money to the agency, but if they don’t have the records, well, they don’t blame us. We have been paying the agencies since we started. We say that we would not pay FAAN completely because of the incident at the Calabar airport, when a car run under our aircraft and damaged it and we had to pay N2 billion for its maintenance. So if you add that, that is N5 billion. We parked our plane at the airport and somebody drove under it and severely damaged it. We were lucky that nobody died. That aircraft was away for over three months. We have to change the fuel tank, do a lot of things. Lufthansa did the job and billed us N2 billion. That was when we stopped paying.


The case of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is very different. Our payment to NCAA was up to date until the time we suspended flight operations because we found out that we were paying them and they owe us money. We have an arrangement whereby the bank is deducting the money from source and they are being paid regularly. We signed agreement with them and we pay money into the bank and the bank is paying them.


But when Nigeria was to get Category 1 safety status they needed an airline that they will inspect under the watchful eye of the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) of the US. We were picked to do that. Now, if we are going to do it, NCAA was supposed to foot the bills. At that time the director general of NCAA said, we don’t have the money and asked if we could do that for them. We now commissioned a consultant, SH &E in the United States to write the manuals, according to the Civil Aviation Act and we had to comply and NCAA had to review the manuals and the manuals were taken to the States.



FAA people came to Arik with NCAA. A lot of things were on and at the end of the day we carried out some test flights and even simulated accidents at about 2:00 am in Port Harcourt. We went to Dakar, Senegal and flew down to Johannesburg; we deployed slides. This cost us $14 million. We asked NCAA, pay!

We held a meeting and at that meeting Dr. Harold Demuren (former director general of NCAA) said we were up to date and I said, no, you owe us money. The Hon. Minister said she was not aware of the debt and I said, maybe they didn’t tell you. Dr. Demuren said that we did it because we wanted to fly the United States; that was what I didn’t like.


I want to tell you that Ghana is ready for certification by FAA but Ghana does not have an airline, so if they approach us I will say, well, here is the bill. If you pay the bill, we are prepared. It is not the airline that should pay for it, so as we speak, NCAA owes us.

In spite of that our banks is still paying them. But suddenly another change was done at NCAA and the new accountant came and told us, you owe us N5 billion. Even as we speak our banks are still deducting money and paying NCAA.


You can see that the agencies need to get their acts together. We have been paying FAAN since this new system they brought on January 14; they can’t say we owe them. But FAAN may not tell you that the airlines pay FAAN on every litre of fuel we buy. We pay them N2.50K per litre. But even the road that leads to the fuel depot in Abuja is bad, FAAN has not repaired it and this delays flights, especially during the rains when the tankers cannot come to the air side to dispense fuel; yet they collect N2.50k per litre of fuel. So they just call a dog a bad name in order to hang it. If you look at foreign reports, Arik is highly rated. Most airline that started with us in other parts of the world have fallen by the way side.

We don’t have problem with the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA). NAMA is managed by a level-headed person, a professional gentleman, Mr. Nnamdi Udoh. He is a fair-minded person, so he looks at the whole thing and we reached agreement on payments.

Nigerian airlines seem to be losing the air travel market in the West and Central Africa sub regions to airlines outside these areas. Before now, Nigerian airlines were dominant in the sub regions. Is there any strategy Arik has to take over the market from the other airlines as more than 65 passengers in these routes are Nigerians?

One of our plans to take over the West and Central African market will be crystallising by June 1. There is Leon Airways that is starting. We are technical partners to Leon Airways and we will be flying from Freetown to London. Of course they too will be flying to some of the West Africa destinations. We are having serious discussion with Air Cote d’ Ivoire. So while we are not making a lot of success in Nigeria because we are not getting a lot of support and recognition, others do appreciate what we are doing. We are aware that in some of the countries Emirates has offered to come and operate and they said no; that they would prefer to have a Nigerian carrier, whereas in Nigeria we are the ones inviting these foreign airlines for peanuts and we say we want to create jobs when all the jobs is to have one indigenous station manager and some people will collect money from the airline and say, go ahead.


Do you share the fear that Nigeria may lose Category 1 if the safety standard in which the country obtained the status is not maintained or improved upon?

I share the fear that Nigeria may lose Category 1 Safety Status from the United States of America. Some of the things we are doing in Nigeria now, aviation wise, are not right. A lot of people are making statements that show that the country doesn’t have a good grip of the aviation industry. But let me quickly say that there are many top Nigerians in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) who are highly knowledgeable in aviation but their views are not being taken into consideration.


The NCAA should have full autonomy, although they should be supervised by the Ministry of Aviation, but NCAA should have full authority to make statements regarding issues, and not the ministry. And the departure of Dr Harold Demuren, to me, is a sad one. Dr Demuren is very well respected in the world and he knows what he is talking when he is talking about safety and he has the contacts. Whether we like his face or not we have to appreciate his work, his pedigree, his knowledge, his experience. I thought we should have given him sometime to groom people and actually bring in FAA to help and look for a different module than what we have now. But the way we are now, where the ministry dictates what the NCAA does, I can see it easily that we may get to a point whereby we lose Category 1.


We are in the industry, we are in contact with a lot of people and we know their thinking and what they say. We just tell them, give us time let us see what will happen. So many people open their mouths and make statement and I think it is not right. I think that many people who sit at the corridors of power today should please watch what they say because they may be hurting the system while saying things to please their masters and it is taking a lot of efforts of a lot of people to get Nigeria to the respectful position that it deserves. We should try not to open our mouth to make statements that are laughable.

I wish to use this opportunity to appeal to our travelling guests (passengers) to stop patronising touts at the airport. As the management of Arik said, we have not deployed up to 60 per cent of our capacity. The other day somebody wrote that by putting more flights in the air, that we are putting more pressure on the aircraft. I find it very interesting. In the United States because of time difference, some aircraft are used for about 18 hours, but ours at maximum operation is about seven to eight hours a day. The reasons for this include poor airfield lighting, insecurity and others. For example, you cannot go to Owerri and Benin after 6:00 pm.

Let me not be misunderstood that I am attacking anybody, I am just giving you the reasons why we cannot operate more hours with our aircraft, like 18 to 19 hours they have on the Boeing. Most of our captains who are supposed to do 100 hours in a month are flying 75 to 80 hours. So we still have more rooms, we can even add more frequencies.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/arumemi-ikhide-nigerian-banks-only-guaranteed-our-loans-for-aircraft/144933/
Culled from Thisday Online

NCAA Grounds British Airways Aircraft Over Engine Failure(Vanguard Newspapers)

Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Monday, grounded a British Airways flight which was scheduled

to depart Abuja by 8.14am to London Heathrow after the aircraft developed a snag in one of its engines

before take-off from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.


Speaking to newsmen, the Acting Director General of the NCAA, Dr. Joyce Nkemakonam said that the

aircraft had a snag and was subsequently grounded by the agency.
He said: "The aircraft had a snag and the airline notified NCAA and it was subsequently grounded".
Investigation conducted by Vanguard revealed that the aircraft door had been shut and modalities to

commence flight set in motion when it was announced that one of the engines was not operational. After

several futile attempts to restart the aircraft, there was a loud noise from the right engine while smoke was

also noticed as the passengers were asked to disembark from the plane, according to sources.

Vanguard further learnt that after several attempts the pilot and engineers were given the option of working

on the problem within 40 minutes or abort the flight and reschedule.

The aircraft was later seen being towed to the tarmac and the flight cancelled.

When contacted, the Country Manager of British Airways, Mr. Kola Olayinka said that the airline's Abuja-

London flight was stopped due to operational reasons.

Mr. Olayinka further pointed out that the parts to fix the snag were being flown from London and will be

arriving the country this night.
He said: "British Airways confirms that its Abuja-London flight was stopped due to operational reasons. At

the moment, the parts to fix the problem are being flown from London tonight, and the flight will operate

tomorrow to new timings."
"All British Airways passengers have been looked after according to our Operational Standard Procedures.

British Airways flight 083 scheduled to depart London tonight is operating normally." he affirmed

Arik Partners Sierra Leone to Establish National Carrier

                                       
                                    Chairman of Arik Air, Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide



Nigeria’s biggest carrier, Arik Air is providing technical support to the government of Sierra Leone to establish a national carrier, known as Leone Airways.


The new airline, which may start operation in June this year will have all the appurtenances of a national airline and will be operating international, regional and local destinations as it is already designated to be flying to London from Freetown.

Arik Air will provide the airline its initial fleet and technical skills until it is able to acquire its own fleet.
Chairman of Arik Air, Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide, who confirmed this development said that it was also partnering with the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire to also build its own national airline and develop its routes in the West and Central Africa.

“There is Leon Airways that is starting. We are technical partners to Leon Airways and we will be flying from Freetown to London. Of course they too will be flying to some of the West Africa destinations. We are having serious discussion with Air Cote d’Ivoire as partners. So while we are not making a lot of success in Nigeria because we are not getting a lot of support and recognition, others appreciate what we are doing.

“We are aware that in some of these countries Emirates has offered to come and operate there and they said no. They would prefer to have a Nigerian carrier, whereas in Nigeria we are the ones inviting these foreign airlines for peanuts and we say we want to create jobs when all the jobs that could be provided by these airlines is to have one indigenous station manager.”

These partnerships with two West African countries will strengthen the dominance of Arik Air in West and Central Africa sub regions and this will also tilt the jostling for the West African market to its favour as each of these countries would determine the airlines that operate their routes to other destinations.


Since the last three years airlines like Asky, a subsidiary of Ethiopian Airways, Kenya Airways, Rwand Air and others from outside the sub region have been making efforts to have a chunk of the market but the competition has remained stiff.

Before its demise, Air Nigeria used to dominate the West and Central Africa routes but since its extinction, Asky has been making efforts to have a foothold, but ironically the dominant passengers in the market are Nigerians who constitute over 65 per cent of the movements.

Industry experts say that West Africa market seemed to be an open market because almost all the countries in the sub-region do not have a national carrier or dominant private airlines and until the establishment of such airlines as the now defunct Air Nigeria, Arik Air and Aero Contractors, it used to take days to travel by air from one West African country to another, as passengers had to travel to Europe first to connect flights to their neighbouring countries.

This was caused by the death of such airlines as Air Afrique, Nigeria Airways Limited, Ghana Airways, Cameroon Airlines and others.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/arik-partners-sierra-leone-to-establish-national-carrier/144693/
Author : Chinedu Eze.Culled from Thisday

Nigeria to host African aviation meeting

Nigeria has been nominated by the executive of the Civil Air Navigation Organisation in Africa to host its first regional conference.

The conference billed for Abuja, is to hold between October 7 and October 11, 2013.

This was disclosed in Lagos on Thursday by the Regional Director, Africa Affairs, Ms. Boni Dibante, when she paid a visit to the headquarters of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency in Lagos.

The conference, which is intended to review air navigation safety globally, especially in Africa, will also chart the way forward for aviation safety as well as develop strategies for improvement.

A statement from the NAMA quoted Dibante as describing the forthcoming event as historic, being the first to be organised by the newly established CANSO Africa Regional Office.

He urged NAMA leadership to strive towards a successful outing.

Participants at the conference would be drawn from the 11 African members, other global members as well as ICAO and industry regulators around the world, he said.

The Managing Director of NAMA, Mr. Nnamdi Udoh, commended Dibante for “doing a great job with CANSO in Africa by creating awareness and ensuring that safety regulations are adhered to within the continent.”

http://www.punchng.com/business/transport/nigeria-to-host-african-aviation-meeting/

Culled from Punch

Proffering Easy Way to Establish National Carrier

While many Nigerians are still yearning for details on how the federal government  intends to float a national carrier, industry experts, who have been sceptical about government’s plan to actualise this goal, have offered realistic ways a national airline can be established, without government losing money.

When the present administration initially declared its intention to float a national carrier, it hinted that it would build the proposed national airline on one or two domestic carriers. Many industry observers then recommended Arik Air and Air Nigeria that have now gone under. But suddenly government dropped the idea and started talking about acquiring aircraft for domestic operators and in the sequence of its programme; this would be followed by the establishment of a national carrier.

Recognising the fact that for many years no administration has made the kind of impact this government has made in the aviation sector, few cynics doubt the good intentions of the government, but many are confused about how it would acquire aircraft for domestic operators and also establish a national carrier in that trend.

But the good intention  of government and realistic ways of approaching these good plans are often mired in politics which bedevils the sector and ensures that successful achievements are not given the commendations they deserve; rather, they are sometimes drowned by unmerited opprobrium. It is always a game of who shouts the loudest.

Amidst such cacophony, many critics have wondered why government could go through the unprofessional method of acquiring aircraft for airlines and establishing a national carrier when a domestic carrier like Arik Air could be used to establish one. Others are vehemently opposed to the idea.

The airline has 23 new generation aircraft acquired directly from the manufacturers and it is expecting another two aircraft and Arik Air’s fleet ranges from large body aircraft like Airbus A340-500 to turboprops. It operates international destinations and currently it dominates West and Central African sub regions in addition to airlifting 12,000 passengers locally with 120 flights every day.

The Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Dr Steve Mahonwu, recalled that at its peak Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) had 19 aircraft. It leased six of these aircraft from Airtara of Dublin, Ireland and one Boeing B747 from SAS, a Scandinavian airline, which the one time Minister of Aviation, Air vice Marshal Anthony Okpere (rtd) christened, The Spirit of Courage.  Also at its peak NAL was airlifting less than 5,000 passengers per day.

It is generally believed that Nigerians and Nigerian government do not believe in Nigerian airlines. Travel expert, Ikechi Uko attributed this to the penchant of Nigerians to denounce what is theirs and their predilection for what is foreign.

“The Nigerian person does not believe in the next Nigerian to give him a better service than the foreigner; even when that fact is untrue, the Nigerian believes that the grass is greener on the other side; he believes that anything foreign is better than anything Nigerian. So that belief of the Nigerian creates the first huddle for any Nigerian product to thrive. You have a situation where a Nigerian carrier like Arik has the best aircraft flying out of Lagos, yet most Nigerians do not patronise them the way they should, despite their having the best equipment, A340-500. That is the best plane out of Lagos but it doesn’t get the kind of traction that it ought to. So the Nigerian lacks the belief in the ability of other Nigerians to do well," he said.

The international aviation expert and the CEO, African Aviation Services Limited, Nick Fadugba, who is also former Secretary General, African Airlines Association (AFRAA) is convinced that using existing airlines to establish a national carrier would be a more realistic project.

Reacting to the government’s plan, Fadugba said: "The Federal Government of Nigeria’s plan to order 30 modern aircraft on behalf of Nigerian airlines and to create a new national carrier need to be very carefully evaluated by experts before they are implemented to ensure the best use of public funds.”

He said that extra caution is also necessary in light of the unintended outcome of the government’s recent intervention fund for Nigerian airlines, noting that despite the government’s good intentions, the fund did not produce the desired results and the financial condition of the Nigerian airline beneficiaries has hardly improved.

“Until the full details are disclosed, the plan by the Nigerian government to order commercial aircraft for private airlines appears to be very strange. It is almost unheard of anywhere in the world for a government to order commercial aircraft directly from manufacturers on behalf of private airlines. The financial and asset risks are just too high. Most governments have no expertise in negotiating multimillion dollar deals with aircraft and engine manufacturers on behalf of third parties and they are unlikely to extract the best possible terms. At the most, a government might provide a payment guarantee to aircraft financiers on behalf of a national airline.

Fadugba also noted that aircraft fleet planning was a critically sensitive subject for airlines. The final decisions are based on the airline’s business plan, its route network, the payload-range capabilities of each aircraft type, and financial and other considerations.

“These decisions need to be taken by professional airline management rather than by politicians. Choosing the wrong aircraft type can prove very costly. Hence the need for caution before the Nigerian government proceeds with its order for 30 aircraft.”

He said that what was certain was that Nigeria urgently needs a safe, strong, reliable and affordable airline industry to facilitate trade, tourism and economic development.

“Currently, over 95 per cent of international air traffic to and from Nigeria is carried on non-Nigerian airlines resulting in huge capital flight annually, funds which ideally should have been retained in Nigeria. In addition, most Nigerian-owned carriers face serious financial, operational and managerial challenges which have eroded their ability to provide efficient services to the travelling public and potentially could jeopardise safety.

“In 2004, the Federal Government of Nigeria chose to shut down Nigeria Airways, the former loss-making national carrier, rather than privatise it. Nine years later, no privately-owned airline in Nigeria has been able to adequately fill the vacuum created by the demise of Nigeria Airways. The largest private airline to emerge has been Arik Air, which has the biggest aircraft fleet, route network and revenues but still faces many challenges, including being too highly leveraged.”

Fadugba observed that the federal government is now talking about launching a new national carrier, “although few details have been publicly disclosed. For such a project to succeed, it is important that the government should widely consult with the Nigerian aviation industry, it is necessary to examine why the previous national carrier failed and what lessons can be learned. In addition to its huge debts, Nigeria Airways suffered from political interference and mismanagement.”

“What will be different if a new national carrier is launched today? Are we sure we shall not see a repeat performance of the political interference and mismanagement? We need to ask ourselves tough questions and be strong enough to accept truthful answers before a new national carrier is created, so as to avoid the costly mistakes of the past.”

Fadugba identified a possible method of creating a new national carrier. He proffered that the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), headed by CEO, Mustapha Chike-Obi, could establish a legal vehicle or Special Purpose Company called ‘New Company’ (Newco),

He suggested that in respect of those Nigerian airlines which are heavily indebted and are unlikely to be able to repay the intervention funds they received from the government, AMCON could convert the debt to equity as it has done with Aerocontractors.

“AMCON would thus effectively take control of several Nigerian airlines which could be bundled into the Newco to form the nucleus of a new national carrier, with AMCON holding shares on behalf of the federal government. The previous airline owners would be given shares in Newco and preferably would not be involved in the day-to-day management of Newco.

“AMCON could then look for core investors from Nigeria and abroad to properly capitalise Newco, procure a professional management team and allow the airline to be run professionally and free from government interference.  Newco would be renamed.  AMCON could arrange an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares in Newco after three years of operation.

“Leveraging Nigeria’s strategic location in Africa and the underlying strength of its air transport market, membership of a global airline alliance should be a target for Newco from day one, but the final decision would only be taken after careful evaluation of each global alliance once the new national carrier was well established.”

He said that ideally, to create the best working environment and to have everybody on board and fully-committed, this strategy for creating a new national carrier should be achieved through consensus between AMCON and the privately-owned airlines in Nigeria, including Arik Air, rather than by dictate or executive fiat.

Out of the existing airlines in Nigeria, Arik Air is most prepared to take advantage of this offer, but many Nigerians said that the airline is heavily indebted and is poorly managed. At its sixth anniversary, the Chairman of Arik Air, Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide said that few Nigerians give the airline chance to survive and also spoke about the debts.

“Some people are still saying we go with heavy debts. Is there any airline that buys planes without borrowing? I am wondering why do we like pulling our own houses down? If you tell somebody Arik Air owes N84 billion and they see the aircraft, the age of the aircraft, they laugh at you because that is under borrowing. Each of those aircraft that you see, the Boeing B737-800, some of them, the way we configured them eat up $96 million apiece,” Arumemi-Ikhide said.

But Fadugba recently emphasised that it was given that airlines owe debts but viable airlines must service those debts. Arik said that it had been servicing its debts. This was confirmed by the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), George Uriesi, on Monday last week when the members of House Committee on Aviation visited. Uriesi said that Arik had started paying its debts to FAAN. AMCON also confirmed Arik was servicing its debt, which it inherited from Union Bank Nigeria Plc.

But just as many people would want the federal government to take easy way out by establishing a national carrier with Nigeria’s foremost airline, many other Nigerians will never want to hear that. It boils down to what Uko observed earlier, “The Nigerian person does not believe in the next Nigerian to give him a better service than the foreigner.”

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/proffering-easy-way-to-establish-national-carrier/144091/

Culled form Thisday.Author :Chinedu Eze

NCAA stops Aero from flying six planes

The labour crisis rocking Aerocontractors Airlines is far from over as the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has restricted the embattled carrier to operating only three out of its nine operational aircraft.

Aero has about 14 aircraft in its fleet but only nine are currently in operation.

Investigations by our correspondent revealed that rather operating all the nine functional planes in its fleet, the crisis-ridden airline had been operating only three aircraft since its resumed operations about six days ago.

Findings revealed that the aviation industry regulator, NCAA, directed Aero to operate only three aircraft after its audit of the airline’s operation showed that it had capacity to operate only three planes following the resumption of operations.

The Acting Director-General, NCAA, Mr. Joyce Nkemalokam, who confirmed the development in a telephone interview with our correspondent, said the regulatory authority was constantly monitoring Aero to ensure that things were done safely and that security was not compromised even as the airline battled through the labour crisis.

The acting DG said, “Our officials are on top of the situation in Aero. The number of planes they are flying now is what they have capacity to operate. We are working with them. As they build more capacity, they will be permitted to operate more aircraft.

“Don’t forget, it was Aero that suspended its operations by itself initially. And now that they are back to fly, they have to follow some safety and security procedures completely.”

The industrial dispute with its 1,300 employees had left Aero grounded for 18 days from March 13 to March 30, 2013. The airline, however, resumed operations last Saturday following the intervention of the Senate.

The carrier resumed after the Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Mr. Hope Uzodinma, met with the management, NCAA and the workers’ union in Abuja, and directed the airline to recall the over 600 dismissed workers, who allegedly participated in protests against a court injunction.

Investigation by our correspondent on Thursday revealed that the crisis rocking Aero was far from over.

Although all the workers have resumed, only a few of them have been cleared to work by the management of the airline.

Sources close to the airline disclosed that NCAA restricted the carrier’s operations to only three planes because the number of cabin crew and other workers cleared to work by the management could only cope with three planes.

Insider sources in Aero said aside planes that were currently on maintenance abroad, no fewer than nine of its planes were currently airworthy and operational.

A top official of Aero explained, “The reason the remaining six planes are not working is simply because Aero management is not ready to clear all the workers to resume work. Although the Senate had directed that all workers should resume, the management is currently carrying out what it called re-assessment for some workers.

“People are being asked to reapply for the job they are currently doing before they can be allowed to work. And when you go for the re-assessment, they give you a new condition of service different from the one you had signed when you were employed.

“So far, only a few workers who have accepted these conditions are being allowed to work. So, there is shortage of cabin crew because majority of them have not signed the form for the new condition of service. This is why NCAA is allowing them to operate only three planes.”

The Aero spokesman said he had yet to be briefed and, as such, did not have any comment regarding the situation.

The Aero management, however, said the workers were opposing restructuring and re-organisation going in the company.

The unions insist that the management must negotiate and pay severance benefits to the workers before carrying out any change that will lead to loss of jobs or outsourcing of current employment opportunities.

Aero is currently experiencing what industry observers have described as the worst crisis in its 53 years of existence.

The crisis has affected domestic air travel, which is currently being dominated by Aero and Arik in terms of wide route network.

Several passengers were stranded during the Easter rush just as many passed though hell to buy scarce flight tickets during the period. Airfares are still on the rise as a consequence.

http://www.punchng.com/news/ncaa-stops-aero-from-flying-six-planes/

culled from Punch

Foreign airlines may stop flights into Nigeria(Punch)

The 24 foreign airlines flying into Nigeria are in dilemma on whether to stop or continue flights into the country as the Federal Government has yet to approve their summer schedule, five days after the commencement of the summer season on March 28, 2013.

It is illegal for any airline to fly into another country without getting approval for its winter and summer seasonal schedules from the host countries, aviation experts familiar with the situation have said.

The approval is usually given days ahead of the expiration of the current season’s schedule in order to avoid a situation where an airline has to ground its flight operations while waiting for approval.

Although most of the foreign airlines have begun implementing their winter schedule, which has yet to be approved by the Ministry of Aviation, a number of them are, however, worried that the delay in the approval process may put them in an unpleasant situation.

A country manager of one of the foreign airlines, who spoke to our correspondent in confidence because of the sensitive nature of the subject said, “We are in dilemma whether to stop our flights to Nigeria or not because we don’t know why the summer schedule has been delayed up till now. We started implementing our summer schedule since March 31, but we are very worried.

“This has not happened in a very long time. So, that is why we are worried. The approval comes usually days ahead of the commencement of the new season’s schedule.”

It was gathered that one of the numerous implications of not getting approval for the schedule before flying was that in the event of a crash or major accident, insurance companies might refuse to pay compensation to the affected airline and its passengers because such would be regarded as an illegal flight.

The development has generated concerns among the foreign airlines’ executives and top officials of the Ministry of Aviation, who felt that any further delay might force some of the carriers to consider halting their flight operations into the country so as not to find themselves in an unpleasant situation.

Findings revealed that the airlines’ winter schedules expired between March 28 and 31, depending on each carrier’s schedule.

It was further gathered that the proposed summer schedules of all the 24 airlines were currently at the ministry awaiting the approval of the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah.

Sources at the ministry, however, could not give reasons for the delay, saying the minister had the final approval.

According to them, the final approval is usually given by the Aviation minister based on the recommendations of the Schedule Approval Committee comprising officials from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, and headed by a director in the ministry.

The chief executive officer of another major foreign airline said, “We don’t know the reason for the delay this time around. We have never experienced this kind of delay before. All of us are just keeping our fingers crossed, looking at what is going to happen.

“Well, we can’t stop our flights since they have not asked us to stop. Neither can we continue the former (winter) schedule because if we do so, our passengers from Nigeria will miss their connections in our hubs in Europe due to the time difference in the new winter schedule. And of course, Nigeria alone cannot be operating a winter schedule in a summer season.”

However, the Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of Aviation, Mr. Joe Obi, said Oduah had not refused to approve the foreign airlines’ summer schedules, adding that they would be approved very soon

Obi said, “The minister has not refused to sign the schedules. There is a procedure and all schedules are currently being processed. This is routine exercise and the minister has no reason to withhold or refuse to sign them.

“But the process must be followed. In a short while, all the schedules will be signed once the processes have been concluded.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/foreign-airlines-may-stop-flights-into-nigeria/

Aero bars workers from resumption, demands CVs(Vanguard)

CONTRARY to the resolution reached at a meeting with the Senate Committee on Aviation, management of Aero Contractors and representatives of the three unions in the nation’s aviation sector in Abuja last week, the airline, yesterday, refused to allow its workers resume their normal duties at the airport.

It is demanding that the workers submit their detailed curricular vitae, CV, with correct contact home addresses and telephone numbers.

One of the key points of the resolution at that meeting was that the management should allow workers to resume their normal duties, while discussion on the ongoing re-organisation of Aero would continue.

In a letter by the Managing Director of Aero Contractors Airlines, Mr. Obaro Ibru, to the affected workers, the airline said: “All the affected staff have been asked to return their dismissal letters by April 2, 2013.

“All the affected staff have been formally communicated with and also notified that they are to undergo an assessment for a suitable role within the company as applicable.

“While the assessment is ongoing, the full salary and benefits applicable to them for the position they occupy prior to the commencement of the reorganisation process has been reinstated and will be paid.”

“All individual staff have also been advised since March 28, 2013 to ensure that they submit their detailed CV with correct contact home addresses and telephone numbers to Aero on or before close of business on April 2, 2013.”

To further heighten the tension between the workers and management, the Director of Human Resources was alleged to have changed the locks to the offices and was allegedly prevailed upon to allow workers have access to their offices.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/04/aero-bars-workers-from-resumption-demands-cvs/