The civil aviation industry, like its associated tourism industry, is another major factor in the Nigerian economy which is not given adequate attention. It is good for Nigeria’s struggling economy and every effort should be made to expand and develop it profitably. The aviation industry is an area involving professional skills and the deployment of high technological tools.

It is for this reason that the Senate recently warned of imminent plane crashes in Nigeria if the aviation industry is not fixed immediately. The alert followed a motion tagged “Distributing Development in the Nigerian Aviation Industry” by Senator Dino Melaye. Contributing to the motion, the Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, said the fear of plane crashes was real as airlines could no longer access foreign exchange to service their aircraft.

According to him, some operators may resort to cutting corners as a result of their inability to access foreign exchange, thereby endangering the lives of air travellers, adding that many airlines in the country were bankrupt ‘and dead’. He stressed that other operators had either withdrawn or relocated to neighbouring countries.

“These problems are caused by policies of government. Monetary policies of government have not allowed the airlines to operate.

“Section 14(2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) says that government must ensure the security and welfare of the people.

We are likely to have a spectre of crashes because most airlines cannot access foreign exchange to service their aircraft”, Akpabio stressed.

Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who presided, said withdrawal of airlines from Nigeria’s aviation industry was a bad omen which may lead to massive job losses. “A situation whereby airlines cannot send back their money to their home countries is a disaster. Competition becomes less and the few left will charge as they want. It is embarrassing that airlines have to go and refuel in Ghana”.

After the debate, the Senate resolved to assist the Federal Government in its planned intervention in the current challenges in the aviation sector with a view to saving air travellers.

The Senate urged the government to ensure that all operators who would benefit from the intervention would not increase fare abitrarily and asked the Federal Government to prevail and insist that airlines used the naira as the official currency in all transactions in the industry.

In fact, Nigeria’s aviation industry is faced with so many challenges that need urgent government attention. Such challenges include poor air transport infrastructure as development has been slow due to various reasons. Human capital development and succession plan, under-capitalisation, credit worthiness of operators, negative workforce resulting from decades of policy neglect and poor implementation of set targets.

These challenges, according to former Aviation Minister, Mrs Fidelia Njeze, have their toll on the orderly succession of existing personnel in the industry, adding that there is a situation whereby what is not enough is being poached by emerging economies.

At the 2011 International Air Transport Association (IATA) Day celebration, the former Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Harold Demuren, said most accidents in Africa are due to lapses on the part of some foreign airlines operating illegally, describing them as the major culprits that most of the carriers involved do not comply with stipulated criteria laid down by various aviation international bodies and organisations.

He said: “Most of the accidents that occur in Africa are on aircraft not registered in Nigeria and nearly half of all aircraft accidents in Africa involved aircraft registered outside Africa”. The former NCAA boss said some airlines do not comply with safety articles and flaunt questionable safety certificates obtained without due allegiance, adding that they also operate with fake insurance papers, forged flight crew licences and have language problems.

“All these contribute to high rate of accidents in the continent, for we have had scenarios where we impounded some of these airlines which cause havoc in our airspaces”, Demuren stressed.

He identified factors that cause infrastructural decay in the aviation industry such as air traffic control, navigation aids, airport equipment and weather services of which the Federal Government then had been tackling with the completed Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) and other infrastructure. Other causes of accident he identified are airline procedure, inadequate training and maintenance, pointing out that ineffective regulatory oversight as well as resource constraints were some of the factors contributing to accidents in the continent.

Despite the inability of most airlines to access foreign exchange to service their aircraft and also send back their money to their home countries which forced them to withdraw their airlines from Nigeria’s aviation industry, there are other policies responsible for the shrinking of domestic market such as the policy of granting multiple entries to foreign airlines operating in Nigeria. The policy, according to domestic airline operators, discourages partnership with foreign airlines, thereby denying Nigeria the technical and economic benefits.

Domestic airline operators had in a statement said, that the multiple entry points denied domestic carriers the opportunity to operate international services as foreign counterparts mop up passengers for international destinations.

They argued that in other parts of the world, governments put in place policies that enhance the growth of local airlines, whereas the Nigerian government granted multiple entry points for foreign airlines. This, they said, deny indigenous airlines the chance to airlift passengers from international airports to international gateways like Abuja and Lagos.

They citied example with Medview Airlines which planned to operate international service to Singapore but while dealing with paper work, Ethiopean Airlines quickly designated its operations to the destination.

The domestic airline operators recalled that in 2013, when Arik Air planned to begin flights to Brazil, the same Ethiopean Airline in partnership with its subsidiary Asky which is headquartered in Togo designated its operations to Brazil from Cotonou from where Nigerian passengers connected to Lagos from Rio Janeiro, and urged the Federal Government to review the policy of granting multiple entries to foreign airlines operating in Nigeria to give local airlines equal opportunity.

Executive Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Captain Nogie Megison, expressed regret that government was killing Nigerian airlines with its policies. “It goes back to government policies which have failed to protect the Nigerian market and labour”, Megison said.

It is, therefore, pertinent that the Federal Government takes urgent step towards preventing any unforseen plane crashes by coming up with policies and actions that would enhance the operations of our local or domestic airlines and the aviation industry.

Prevention, they say, is better than cure and a stitch in time saves nine. Let us not experi

ence again the Sosoliso and other air mishaps that rocked the country some years ago.

Shiedie Okpara