Nigeria’s aviation industry is facing a severe crisis, with pilots and engineers struggling to find jobs due to a shortage of aircraft.
Pilots and engineers, once highly sought-after and considered dream careers in aviation, are now left jobless, as there are not many airlines to hire them.
With limited opportunities at home, many pilots and engineers are now seeking opportunities abroad, worsening the nation’s brain drain.
“The aviation industry is currently witnessing a drop in aircraft availability due to heavy maintenance. This is placing many pilots and maintenance engineers out of employment as operators will not keep employees that cost them a lot of overhead,” said Sheri Ayuba Kyari, head of Administration and Human Resources at 7Star Global Hangar Ltd, a company with focus on aircraft maintenance in Nigeria and other parts of Western Africa.
Kyari urged Festus Keyamo, minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, to find a solution to the challenge and ensure that the professionals are absorbed into the sector.
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Abednego Galadima, president of the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), told BusinessDay that unlike Nigerian domestic airlines, carriers such as Ethiopian Airlines and others with larger fleets frequently require personnel as they have the capacity to absorb them.
“We are a country of over 200 million people and you can argue that the flying population is about 15 million, but even with that, most of our international travels are handled by foreign airlines who will normally bring in their own pilots, thereby worsening the unemployment rate,” Galadima said.
He said that during peak periods, local airlines bring in wet-lease aircraft with foreign crew, thereby shutting out local pilots from job opportunities.
“If we are able to increase the capacity in terms of getting dry lease aircraft, then we can employ more pilots and engineers. The more aircraft equipment we have, the more personnel you require to operate and maintain,” he said.
BusinessDay’s findings show that passenger demand continues to overshoot supply.
Last year, data obtained by BusinessDay from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) show that 13 domestic airlines together operate a total of 91 aircraft. This data include aircraft that have gone on maintenance.
Airlines that sent their aircraft on maintenance haven’t been able to return them due to skyrocketing costs resulting from foreign exchange scarcity.
Others were forced to ground their aircraft for their inability to send the aircraft for maintenance.
Annie Ojewunmi, Aircraft technician – Wheels and Brakes, told BusinessDay that when aircraft availability declines, both pilots and engineers are negatively impacted.
“With fewer aircraft, there are fewer flights, and therefore, fewer active flying crew and maintenance personnel are needed. This leads to unemployment or underemployment for many professionals in the industry,” Ojewunmi said.
She explained that the impact on aircraft maintenance engineers is particularly significant, adding that with fewer aircraft to maintain, airlines and other air operators require less manpower, resulting in reduced demand for engineers.
“This forces skilled engineers to seek better opportunities abroad, leading to a brain drain in the Nigerian aviation industry. Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) organisations also feel the impact, as the lack of competitive manpower limits industry growth.
Cancellations, delays
Nearly 50 percent of domestic airlines’ flight operations have either been delayed or cancelled in the last 12 months as aircraft scarcity and airlines’ schedules continue to disrupt flights.
Ado Sanusi, managing director, Aero Contractors, however, argued that while there is scarcity of single aisle aircraft for lease, there is also scarcity of crew.
He explained that bridging the gap requires companies with strong maintenance capacity to help workers move from inexperience to experience, as well as airlines willing to train inexperienced and low-hour pilots so they can build the flight hours needed to advance in their careers.
He noted that global widening is the reason the International Air Transport Association is asking for an increase in retirement age from 65 to 67 years.
