The Federal Government has recently hinted that the planned national carrier is going to be private sector driven and a dominant carrier in Africa. Many stakeholders in the aviation sector take the government’s move with national carrier with a pinch of salt.
Sirika while speaking with newsmen in Lagos recently said the national carrier which he assured would materialize before President Muhammadu Buhari completes his first term in office would be the dominant in Africa, taking advantage of the numerous bilateral air service agreements majority of which are currently dormant.
Government has appointed a consortium of foreign companies as transaction advisors for the proposed national carrier amidst misgivings from stakeholders in the industry who queried the rationale behind hiring foreigners to drive the project.
An industry player and former Managing Director of the defunct Nigeria Airways, Capt. Mohammed Joji had in an open letter to the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, stating that Nigerian aviation professionals are “more competent and can understand our core value, Psychology and intricacies involved in setting up a National Carrier far more than the appointed foreigners, whom we know their pedigree worldwide in Aviation.”
Despite the misgivings, the government is going ahead with its plan, according to the Minister who said, “…By March we should be able to have our outline business case for this transaction and then the full business case will follow almost immediately after because they are going in simultaneously and after that we begin the process to establish.
But only few stakeholders take the government serious in its approach. How many airplanes will the carrier take off with? Can it be the dominant carrier in Africa? Generally, stakeholders are anxious about the model to be adopted in setting up the carrier when it is clear as a crystal that government lacks the resources to fund the carrier going by competing sectoral demands.
For instance, Ethiopian Airlines that is the dominant and biggest carrier in Africa at the moment has 94 aircraft in its fleet comprising six A350-900 XWB; 19 B787-8; two B787-9; four B777-300ER; six B777-200LR and six B767-300ER for the long range passenger service.
For the medium ranger passenger service, the airline has 16 B737-800 and eight 737-700 while it has 19 Bombardier Q400 for the regional and domestic passenger service.
South African Airways which is another major carrier in the African continent has 53 aircraft in its fleet comprising five A330-300; six A330-200; seven A340-300/600; 10 A320-200 and seven A319-100 and six 737-800.
Kenya Airways has two B737-700; eight 737-800; seven 787-8; 15 Embraer 190AR.
Also a further check on the aircraft types shows that a unit cost of A350-900 XWB is estimated at $317.4m; B777-300ER costs $361.5m; B777-200LR is $334m per unit cost. The 737-800 is $102.2m per unit cost.
Also further checks show that A330-200, another common aircraft type goes for $238.5m while the A330-300 is $264.2m. Experts say aircraft acquisition involves huge deployment of capital which Nigeria may not be able to afford.
An aviation stakeholder who spoke with Daily Trust on condition of anonymity said, “Certainly nobody has that kind of money in this country, that probably explains why the government is looking towards the direction of foreigners. The Middle East countries/carriers like Qatar and Emirates can also be of help in this regards. But we don’t have the details of the transactions.”
The stakeholder however queried the payment of $5m for the transaction advisors, noting that amount of money is enough to lease five aircraft for six months to start off.
The founder/coordinator of Bring Back Nigeria Airways group, Capt. Ibrahim Yunusa Kazaure said government can establish a national carrier within six months if they are serious about it. He said Nigeria being an oil producing nation can enter into agreement with an aircraft manufacturer to supply the country with the take off aircraft in return for crude oil. He recalled that a precedent was set between Saudia, a Saudi Arabian national carrier with Boeing with the former supplying 10 B747-400 aircraft to the former.
“So government must show seriousness in actualizing the project which is a major component of the current administration’s campaign promise,” he said.
Capt. Joji who is Chairman/CEO of Skypower Express Airways said rather then dissipating energy on national carrier, government can designate two to three flag carriers representing the country in any part of the world.
Ali Magashi, CEO of Kitari Consult, an aviation management consultancy firm, insists government should be the sole owner of a national carrier even as he pointed out that top 20 Airlines in the world were started by government and still being funded by government.
He said many private sector players would not invest the huge amount of money required because “aviation is not competitive in terms of return for investment.”
