Obiora Okonkwo is the chairman of United Nigeria Airlines (UNA). In this interview with IFEOMA OKEKE, he speaks on the impact of inflation of airline operations in Nigeria. He also hints on plans for the airline in the coming months.
It is now a year since you commenced scheduled operations in Nigeria, how has it been?
First, on the passenger airlift, we have been able to unite between 250,000 to 300,000 people in the last one year and to the glory of God, they have all taken off and landed safely. We have also grown our locations across different regions and cities. Right now, we are in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Osubi, Bayelsa, Anambra, Enugu and Owerri. I may not know how it has been in the past, but some of my friends and colleagues in the industry have been saying this is commendable.
But, we are not dwelling on what we have been able to achieve, we have our eyes on the future. By this time next year, we intend to cover all six geo-political regions of this country. And for that to happen, we will be increasing our fleet and at the same time, expanding our workforce. We have set a big task for ourselves that within a few months, we would have started our regional flights; West Africa. Hopefully, by this time next year, we would have grown to some other countries of Africa beyond the region. These, we intend to achieve despite the difficult operating environment.
What is the rationale for subsidizing the tickets for the flying public and where is the subsidy coming from?
We did our feasibility studies, understood the challenges in the business today and we plan to remain viable. Based on our studies, we understand the storm, but when you are operating in an economic environment where things happen so fast, it’s unfortunate. In some countries when you are talking about inflation, you can project what the inflation will be in the next one year, but when it’s doubling, there is little you can do. Within a year, aviation fuel jumps from N190 to N400. Nobody would have said the naira to a dollar accessed at N340 will rise to N570 within a year. You could have said the worst-case scenario; naira would be available at N350 to N360. We have a top management team and we have enough knowledge in our organisation, but things are happening so fast and very unimaginable for people to even comprehend.
Flight delays and cancellations are high among Nigerian airlines, thereby frustrating passengers, how do you intend to address this?
There are many reasons a flight can be delayed or cancelled as the case may be. This may not be as a result of the fault of the operators. It could be a weather issue or operational reasons. We have seen a situation whereby a flight is scheduled to fly to Owerri, but there is a delay at Asaba because of weather, but the passengers may not understand this and decide to go violent. This is a challenge we all have upon ourselves; it is not good for the industry. You may want to take off and have a snag in the process and for safety reasons, you cannot fly.
Read also: Passengers disembark after AirPeace’s aircraft engines suffer bird strike
How do you think the government can appropriately support players in the sub-sector?
There is no support given to the sub-sector by the government that keeps the aircraft flying and keeps the passengers on the move that is too big. The reason is that this is a huge revenue source for the government. About four agencies of the government directly feed from the operations of the airlines. So, if the government would support it in any way possible, they would still benefit from it. Apart from the employment that it will drive, those employees still pay different taxes to the government. Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation did say before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic that the aviation industry was either the third or fourth contributor to the Nigeria Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Such a sector requires attention, especially in the area of special funding and foreign exchange access. If you are to go through the current foreign exchange access, you will have numerous delays and Aircraft on Ground (AOG) because, within 24 to 48 hours, you are supposed to find a spare part for any damaged spare part for the aircraft to be back to services, but because of the cost of these spare parts and the poor assessment of Nigeria, these spare parts are not readily available to operators. So, you don’t have so much to keep on the ground to be able to cover the AOG.
What is your assessment of the infrastructure at the nation’s airports?
Some of the infrastructures are working well. If you get to high seasons like Christmas, it is either there is infrastructure collapse or near-total collapse. I will also think that airports are built for services and operations. 80 to 90 per cent of airports in Nigeria are on self-regime and one will begin to ask why. You have to schedule your operations to make sure you start your operations and end within the sunset. These have to be looked into. It costs the operators huge sums of money to operate beyond the 6:30 pm. This also leads to a lot of flight cancellations among the airlines. If you have the opportunity to fly till 11 pm or 12 am, the passengers will get used to it and the airlines will be able to increase customer satisfaction and increase the confidence of the customers.
The aviation industry is not just a business venture, but it’s a serious security issue and that is why promoters are subjected to security clearance it’s also a great contributor to the economic development of the country. Nigeria cannot establish its own in the West and entire Africa if you don’t have a transport system that can bring our brothers and sisters in and out of the country and the only people that can do that is the aviation industry. So, it is a very serious sector that requires very noble attention. We are grateful to the government for what it has done so far, but if more is done, there will be more benefits for the government and the industry at large.
