President Muham- madu Buhari’s ad- ministration may be considering merg- ing all debtor airlines in the country into a national carrier, capable of serving the West and Central African regions, with Nigeria as the regional aviation hub.
That is part of the recom- mendations of the Ahmed Joda transition committee, which submitted its report to President Buhari about two weeks ago.
Six of Nigeria’s leading domestic airlines are cur- rently bogged down by huge debts totalling about N130 billion, forcing them to turn to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AM- CON) for a lifeline.
In 2014, the Federal Min- istry of Aviation gave the debt portfolio of five of the airlines with AMCON at over N190 billion.
The amount excluded sundry debts to aviation agencies like the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Air- space Management Agency (NAMA), suppliers and oth- er institutions.
The aviation ministry said it arrived at the huge figure after a comprehensive audit of the operations of all the domestic airlines.
Details of the audit find- ings, the ministry said, showed Aero Contractors’ debt stood at over $200 mil- lion (N308bn), with 60 per- cent of its equity already taken over by AMCON; IRS Airlines, $55 million (N84bn); Chanchangi Air- lines, $55 million (N84bn), and the now bankrupt Air Nigeria, owing about $225.8 million (N347.7bn).
In 2012, airlines – Arik, Aero, IRS, Bellview, Chan- changi, Afrijet, Albarka, Ca- verton, Continental, Air Nige- ria and Savannah, were at the verge of going under when AMCON waded in with a N132 billion lifeline, saving in the process over 7,000 staff from being thrown into the labour market.
SADE WILLIAMS
