Why planes no longer fall off the skies in Nigeria – Finchglow GMD

Bankole Bernard, the Group Managing Director, Finchglow Holdings Limited says for some years now, planes no longer fall of the skies in Nigeria because airlines and relevant safety authorities have become conscious of safety.

Bernard who is also the chairman of Airlines and Passengers’ Joint Committee (APJC) of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said the collective efforts of IATA and Nigerian airlines in securing the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) Certification has continued to boost safety in Nigeria.

BusinessDay’s checks show that most Nigeria airlines have the IOSA certificate.

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Air Peace Limited recently secured its sixth consecutive IOSA Certification, underscoring its commitment to maintaining high global safety standards in aviation.

Speaking on Thursday during an interactive session on the review of 2024 activities and preview of 2025 in the Nigerian aviation industry with aviation reporters, Bernard said, “I had the opportunity of speaking with the representative of IATA in Nigeria, and he made me to understand that, today, one of the things we’re enjoying that everybody has taken for granted is the fact that almost all local airlines have been issued IATA’s safety certificates.

“IATA now offers trainings to airlines at no cost because at the end of the day, it does not speak well of IATA and the industry that planes are falling off the skies. It has been a while now that we heard that our aircraft dropped off the sky. It’s because somebody has paid attention to safety first,” he explained.

He said that the floating of the exchange market by the President Bola Tinubu-led administration and other policies carried out by the government, would make such a the issue of trapped funds almost impossible in the future.

He also said that the floating exchange market had brought stability and predictability to the economy and indigenous businesses.

“2024 started off on a very tough note. This is so because the airline’s trapped funds were still there. Also, inflation went to all high figures and the cost of tickets became unbearable and airlines started restricting inventories and that created a lot of problems,” he said.

“I can tell you for a fact that the issue of airline trapped funds can never come up again in this country. That is gone for good. It has now become an eye opener to everyone that we really don’t need to tie our hands and legs and expect the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to provide foreign exchange. Let the market be free for all. Anywhere you can get your money, please go ahead.

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“In that process, we started experiencing stability. That stability has now brought growth in business for us. The growth in business it brought for us is what is still making us remain in business till date and has given us room to project because we would have been in a dilemma of what 2025 would be.

“But exchange rate has become stable to a very large extent. Exchange rate cannot go to N1,900 again, except some people are manipulating it. The only thing that we will experience is that it will continue to drop to take the natural value that it should be. Once there is stability, it means as a business we can plan and that is what has happened to us.”