– Vows To Stop Mortality Rate Among Carriers
LAGOS – The Federal Government has decried the collapse of over 100 Nigerian airlines in the last 40 years, describing it discouraging.
This is as the government has vowed to curb mortality rate among the country’s airlines, assuring that it would always protect the domestic operators to remain in business.
Mr. Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, stated this over the weekend during the 10th year anniversary celebration of Air Peace in Lagos.
keyamo who expressed sadness over the death of the airlines, declared that he was more associated with domestic airlines than the foreign carriers.
He insisted that the Federal Government had a responsibility to protect the domestic carriers to ensure their survivability amidst the challenging operating difficulties.
Some of the major Nigerian airlines that have closed shop in the last 40 years include Okada, Bellview, ADC, Sosoliso, Fresh Air, Hak Air, Albarka, EAS, NICON, Virgin Nigeria, First Nation, IRS, Space World and Afrijet.
Others are Nigeria Airways Limited, Harco, Harka, Slok Air, Argonaut Airlines, Comet Airlines, Fassey Royal Limited, GAS Airlines, Wind Air, Capital Airline, Skyline, Rite Time Aviation, Freedom, Dasab, Savanna, Triax, Chrome, Skypower Express, Premium Air Shuttle, Savannah, Merchant Express, Afrijet, Selcon Airline, Chanchangi Airlines and others.
The aforementioned airlines at a time, dominated the Nigerian aviation industry scene with different brands of aircraft in their fleet and flew to many destinations both within the country and beyond.
But, none of them operated up to a 10-year period before they collapse.
The minister however expressed delight with Air Peace for remaining in business in the last decade despite the myriads of challenges confronting operations in the industry.
He said: “I am excited to be here for two reasons. The first is Air Peace has survived for 10 years as it keeps striving and going higher and higher. It is not on a decline. It is actually on the rise.
“If you look at the history of airlines in Nigeria, it is difficult for any of them to survive more than 10 years and still remain in business. We have a history of high mortality of airlines, more than 100 airlines in the last 40 years or so.
“So, you ask yourself why they died. When I came to the office, I looked at this thing and I said there must be something that is responsible for this high mortality rate of airlines. And then here you have Air Peace, after 10 years still looking fine, still looking healthy and actually on the rise rather than on decline.
“In the last few months, I have approved a number of international routes for Air Peace. So, Air Peace actually is a proud ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As a government, we are proud to support our local airlines, we are proud to support Air Peace in particular because they fly our flag very high all over the world. Air Peace is rocking the world right now. They are rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest airlines in the world.
“The second reason is that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Air Peace is still alive. That is the second reason to celebrate because you (Allen Onyema) is alive today to see the progress of this great initiative. We had an example of someone who had an Air Operator Certificate (AOC), he got the aircraft in but they did not start operation before he died.”
Keyamo assured that the domestic carriers would begin to have access to dry lease aircraft following the recent implementation of the Cape Town Convention, which protects the lessor’s assets.
Also, speaking at the event, Vice-President, Kashim Shettima, represented by Sen. Saidu Alkali, the Minister of Transport, stated that the successes recorded by Air Peace in the last 10 years represented a reflection of what businesses could achieve given the right environment.
He restated the commitment of the Federal Government to address the impediments against the growth of indigenous airlines, saying the recent implementation of the Cape Town Convention (CTC) practice direction would reduce operational cost and enhance competitive.
Besides, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, commended the founder of Air Peace, Dr. Allen Onyema for “building an airline we are so proud of” while hailing the airline’s safety record.
Onyema in his remarks stated that Air Peace belonged to the whole Nigerians, saying any attempt to demonise the airline would hurt the entire country.
He restated that he set up the airline solely to create jobs and put joy in the faces of Nigerians even as he apologised to Nigerians who had suffered one form of disappointment or another in the course of its operation.
“In Air Peace we have zero tolerance for anything that is unsafe…For those times we disappointed you we are very sorry. For those times we didn’t meet your expectations we are very sorry,” he said.
Also at the gathering were Governor Alex Otti of Abia State; Dikko Radda of Katsina and Ooni of Ife, Oba Ogunwusi Adeyeye.
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