Experts in the aviation sector are seeking the involvement of Nigerians in the establishment of a national carrier.
A national carrier is a transportation company, such as an airline that, being locally registered in a given country, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations.
Last week, the federal government gave approval for the engagement of Luftansa consulting and others as transaction advisors for the establishment of national carriers amongst others, as part of implementing the aviation roadmap. The engagement of the advisors will cost the government N1.5billion.
Hadi Sirika, who spoke on the engagement of the advisors said the first step to implementing the aviation roadmap is to appoint a transaction adviser who will give advisory services and kick start and lead the process.
Adbulsalami Mohammed, rector and chief executive of the College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, said that he hopes that when the national carrier is established, Nigerians will be actively involved.
“I am hoping that by the time the national carrier is setup you will see a reverse in the trend, because people are going out because there are no jobs here. If there are similar jobs available locally, they will come and support the national carrier.
“This was what happened in the days of Virgin Nigeria. When Virgin Nigeria was setup virtually every pilot in Nigeria applied to join. I left my work in the UK and came to work for Virgin Nigeria. So I believe when the national carrier is setup you will see huge droves of aviation professionals coming to join the national carrier,” Mohammed said.
This call is coming at a time when there is a glut of unemployed personnel in the Nigeria aviation sector which is currently created by the current challenges bedeviling the sector, experts say.
These challenges they say range from funding, the impact of recession, the naira to dollar exchange rate, unfriendly regulations, cost of aviation fuel as well as low infrastructures across the nation’s airports.
“Nigeria currently has a surplus number of pilots who are still roaming the street. We have over 400 unemployed pilots and over 200 unemployed aircraft engineers, excluding trained cabin crew members, air hostesses, air traffic warders, flight dispatchers, and aeronautical officers.”
“The sector is going through a lot of hardship this period which has even made it difficult for airlines to employ as much staff as they used to. Some of the challenges are foreign exchange scarcity, high cost of aviation fuel and the economic recession. All we need to salvage this situation is implementing the right policies,” Isaac Balami, President of the Nigeria Aircraft and Pilot Engineers told BusinessDay.
Dele Ore, President of Aviation Round Table and a former pilot with the defunct Nigeria Airways told BusinessDay that before a new national carrier is set up, there is a need to find out what went wrong with Nigeria airways so we do not fall into the same problem.
Ore said it is important that government carries out a feasibility study to know the kind of aircraft to float for the carrier and let people know if they will be given exclusive routes to ply like they did to Virgin Nigeria for five years.
