Experts are lining up to discuss issues around Nigeria’s aviation problems at the 12th Akwaaba Aviation day conference which is to be held on the 31st of October at Eko Hotel, Lagos. Akwaaba African Travel Market is a three day Travel expo in its 12 year now. It will be holding from the 30th to the 1st of November at Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos.
Thirty speakers have been lined up to discuss aviation and tourism in Africa, and already exhibitors from Kenya, Bahrain, Dubai, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Benin Republic have made arrangements for the 3 day expo. With the topic Aviation in Africa and Why Airlines Fail, the secnd Aviation day at Akwaaba will draw on the experience of major players in Nigerian Aviation.
“We met 26 Airlines and only 5 are left now,” said of the MD of Medview Airlines, Muneer Bankole, according to a statement signed by Ikechi Ukoh for the conference planning team.
Thirty days after that statement Aero the oldest Airline in Nigeria closed shop and soon after First Nation joined the Avia exit.
The suspension of flight by the biggest Airline in West Africa Arik on midnight of 13th September due to the expiration of insurance was the last straw.
Arik, with about 26 airplanes, is the livewire of movement in Nigeria and West Africa and has since sorted itself out and resumed flights, but the problem of aviation still persists.
The most Influential Players in Aviation between 1999 and 2010 will be sharing their experience.
The most Influential Players in Aviation between 1999 and 2010 will be sharing their experience.
At the conference, Harold Demuren former DG of NCAA, Richard Aisebeogun, former MD of Federal Airport Authority (FAAN) and the former COO of Overland Airways and ADC Airlines, will be joined by Dapo Olumide, former MD of Virgin Nigeria, Edmund Yomi Jones, former MD of Nigeria Airways, Mike Omokore, a search and rescue expert, as well as Kenyan Female Aviator Dorcas Aketch formerly of Kenya Airways, Virgin Nigeria and lately Rwandair, will be pointing the way out of the crisis.
Aviation didn’t suffer a sudden collapse. Nigeria has had a cyclical boom and bust aviation history.
A sudden burst and blossoming of Airlines and the gradual demise of most and the eventual boom again.
There have been legendary airlines that ruled the Airspace and eventually disappeared. Outside Nigeria Airways, the defunct National carrier, Okada Air, was the most popular.
As a Pioneer Private Airline it gave its name to the motorbike Taxis in Nigeria, famously called “Okada” and at a point it had 53 Aircraft on its register, mostly BAC-111.
With the banning of the BACs in 2001, the Airline disappeared, after which was the reign of ADC Airlines set up by Pilots from Nigeria Airways.
With the banning of the BACs in 2001, the Airline disappeared, after which was the reign of ADC Airlines set up by Pilots from Nigeria Airways.
ADC used the B727 classic and the crash in 2006 of another aircraft saw the death of the Airline.
The rash of air crashes in 2006 led to the new powers and the times of Harold Demuren as director general of the now autonomous Nationa Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the regulatory agency.
Demuren is credited with the clean up of the Nigeria airspace, as his tenure saw to the exit of West Africa’s only Airline Bellview Airlines and Sosoliso after crashes that year.
New airlines then appeared to fill up the space, among them Virgin Nigeria and Arik, world class airlines by Nigerian standards.
Eventually Chanchangi and Dana provided the competition to these big players. Chanchangi and Virgin Nigeria have since disappeared and DANA has been struggling after its 2012 crash.
Air Peace, Medview and Overland are the only robust Airlines in Nigeria today
