L-R: Barr Allen Onyema, Vice President, Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, Alhj Muneer Adebowale Bankole, Chairman, Medview Airlines; His Royal Highness, Oba Olufolarin Olukayode Ogunsawo, Telade IV, Alara of Ilara, Alhaja Rafiat Adebowale Bankole-Savage
… The federal government, financial institutions, operators and other critical stakeholders failed to take drastic action to mitigate the life-threatening “haemorrhage” the airlines are presently subjected.
Barr Allen Onyema, Vice President, Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, sounded the alarm but warned that any lackadaisical attitude from any quarter in the next 30 days could usher in the beginning of the end of domestic airlines operations in Nigeria.
Onyema made the prophetic pronouncement but with a caveat, urging every concerned party to have their hands on deck with a view to find a drastic solution to the dire condition of Nigerian airlines
Allen Onyema, who is also the Chairman of Air Peace, warned that if there was no well thought-out recovery action immediately deployed, several domestic airlines could cease operations within the next 30 days.
Speaking on the sideline at the public presentation of the biography titled, “Pathways, Pilgrimage & Destiny: The Biography of Alhaji Muneer Bankole”, Onyema said the industry is facing an existential crisis driven by high operating costs and multiple financial obligations.
Onyema fingered government charges and taxes as part of the ordeal unleashed on airlines as they have largely contributed to the bleeding of Nigerian airlines.
According to him, factors inhibiting the airlines’ survival are, among other things, rising operating costs, government charges and other pressures that threaten the well-being of domestic carriers.
Onyema volunteered his opinion on aviation business, “aviation is not a piece of cake. It is an industry that is not very rewarding. It is capital-intensive, yet less rewarding. Today, we are facing a phase that poses existential threats. Except something drastic is done very quickly within the next 30 days, a lot of airlines might go extinct”.
Onyema, who is also the Vice President of Airlines Operators of Nigeria, AON, identified factors causing headwind against smooth and profitable airline operations as the prohibitive cost of aviation fuel, multiple regulatory charges, encumbered access to financing and the workers who ought to have sympathy but chose to play the hatchet role against the airlines’ survival, have collectively impacted airlines negatively.
He argued that “The airlines are not against helping the government generate revenue. But no airline in the world is taxed directly for revenue. The airlines indirectly provide revenue for the government,” he said.
On the unions whose ultimatum had twice expired but now resolved to picket the airlines for not remitting the 5% Ticket Sales Charge, TSC, he said airlines would support one another if any carrier was picketed.
Onyema enthused, “If they picket any airline, others will go because there’s no need for that. There is nowhere in the world that government agencies use unions to talk about issues of debt.”
About Post Author
