Sade Williams/Business a.m.

Airline operators have called on the federal government to suspend the minimum six aircraft policy saying resolving issues such as difficulty in sourcing foreign exchange  beleaguering operations should be the focus.

Recall that before the exit of Musa Nuhu as the director general of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA), the federal government, through the NCAA, came up with a policy prescribing minimum of six aircraft fleet size for any Nigerian airline operator to retain its air operator’s certificate (AOC).

The policy also prescribed that out of the six operating aircraft, four must be airworthy at any given period while the remaining two must also be in service-able state.

This policy, which  operators had considered as harsh and capable of crippling both already operating airlines and intending startups, is expected to take off in January 2025, about eight months from now.

Despite the outcry that greeted this policy by industry experts, the authority appears resolute in ensuring that it is duly implemented.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Tukur, former deputy general secretary, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), described the policy as killing and advised that it should be discarded right away.

He said: “I expect the current acting director-general of the NCAA, Captain Chris Najomo to suspend the policy forthwith. I have no doubt that Captain Najomo, an experienced pilot who has worked with several airlines will definitely do away with the policy because it is very retrogressive.”

He noted that the intended policy at the current state of the economy would not work adding, “I am aware of one or two startup airlines that made deposits for four aircraft and took delivery of some but up till now have not been able to acquire the remaining due to their inability to secure the required foreign exchange to pay up the balance.”

Tukur stressed that retaining the minimum of three aircraft remains the ideal option because it takes an airline at least three months to develop routes adding that “insisting on six aircraft doesn’t make any economic sense as it will be impossible to deploy up to four aircraft to operations immediately by startups and keeping aircraft idle is a monumental waste.”

But Abdulrasaq Sheidu, secretary general of the Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP), has a different opinion regarding the policy.

According to him, the six aircraft requirements would help sanitise the industry and eliminate flight cancellations. He noted that “airline business is not for jokers but for serious investors with the requisite capital.”

However, an industry expert who preferred to speak under anonymity observed that the requirement was a bad policy solely designed to clip the wings of the private operators in favour of the stillborn Nigeria Air by Hadi Sirika, the embattled former minister of aviation.

He stated that even the then director-general of NCAA who was championing the implementation of the policy, knew that it was not going to work.

The industry expert further observed that the former NCAA chief in an interview in the media, acknowledged that “Nigerian airlines are operating under [a] very hostile environment that makes it impossible for them to break even.”

He had equally noted that, “an airline cannot operate in isolation of the economy it is operating in and [the] Nigerian economy is in very difficult times.

“The cost of financing is 25 percent. That is killing to start with. You take a loan, and you are paying 25 percent of whatever you make to the bank. You are talking about your expenses, your current and long-term liabilities.

“It is a very difficult environment for the airlines and we also sympathise with them and we will try and see where we have flexibility to make life easy for them,” Nuhu had said.

The industry expert therefore noted that it was evident from Nuhu’s submissions in the media interview that the former DG must have been forced to recommend six aircraft as minimum requirement, by the promoters of the failed Nigeria Air.

The managing director of a startup airline who craved anonymity said the pronouncement was like sounding a death knell on the already distressed sector.

He disclosed that since February 2023, his management’s efforts to source foreign exchange for the purchase of aircraft it negotiated in the United States has remained a mirage.

He further disclosed that after all their efforts to source the funds at the official window failed their management decided to source and transmit funds through alternative parallel market medium which the lessors of the aircraft turned down and requested payment options from a verifiable source with proper link to the Lessee.

“On behalf of other startups like us, as well as other concerned operators, [we] are using this medium to appeal to the minister of aviation and the aerospace development, Festus Keyamo, to prevail on the acting director-general of NCAA, Captain Najomo, to suspend or jettison the policy for the good of the industry,” he said. said.