Aviation Experts advocate for Clearing House, Co-sharing, others to boost growth in Sector

 

Experts in the Aviation industry in Nigeria have advocated for a clearing house, co-sharing, data and others to boost the growth of the sector.

They made this as part of their submissions while speaking at a panel session moderated by former Managing Director, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN), Capt. Rabiu Yadudu during the LAAC 28th Edition of Annual Conference on the Aviation Survivability Amidst a Challenging Macro-Economic Environment held in Lagos.

Group Managing Director, Finchhgloow, Mr. Bankole Bernard stated that everything in the aviation sector has been dollarized, adding that the government can begin to initiate policy that will facilitate goods and services and sustain the industry to keep it afloat.

Bankole stated that government can keep the business going by continuity and they should know that theirs is governance and to create the enabling environment for business to thrive.

He pointed out that the aviation sector is not relating with other sectors, noting that for the sector to survive there is the need to convene an Aviation Industry Summit.

According to him, “we need to collaborate, consolidate among the domestic operators like the banks and the telecommunications sectors.

He noted that there is no data in the Aviation sector and without data you cannot do economic planning.

Bankole emphasized that the aviation industry is capital intensive and so self funding becomes very difficult with the prevailing interest rate in the market, noting that it will be very difficult for the industry to survive because we have gotten to the level of hyper-inflation.

“The industry should come together because the more we tax the industry, the faster we will see to the end of the industry. We don’t have data to help us to some empirical analysis,” he said.

He stated further that aviation is a global business and the airline need to play by the rule because you cannot do standalone in the industry, so NCAA should be able to gather data that for you to move from point A to point B, this can guarantee your five percent profit margin.

The Central Bank of Nigeria, Telecommunications Companies, he said are doing the same thing in the banking and telecommunications sectors respectively with their clearing houses to settle their debts.

“I think that the domestic carriers don’t trust each other. They need to trade among themselves, so there should be a clearing house for the industry,’ he added.

He pointed out that we should be able to get Jet A1 and pay in local currency.

In his contribution, the Acting Chief Operation Officer, Bicourtney Aviation Services Limited, Mr. Remi Jibodu acknowledged that cost in the industry has been dollarized, adding that we have to be daring viz revenue optimization, but we have to be very innovative and creative.

Jibodu highlighted that not being able to connect to the trade center is what is making the airport not to viable for us to have investors.

According to him, “We have to look at the mistakes of other airlines that have come down. So, we need to be able to reduce our risk exposure and share our expertise. We need to solve the problem by getting the market intelligence.”

Engr. Eyitayo Yusuf harped on the need to reach out to banks to fund some of aviation infrastructure as well as capacity building.

Former Managing Director, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN), Capt. Rabiu Yadudu mentioned that there is need to review and update our regulation, stressing that we need the government in our industry because sometimes it can be legitimate if you look at them as we need adequate surveillance and enforcement and get the necessary revenue for our economy.

Yadudu stated that there is a problem in not maximizing the digitalisation of our resources, citing an instance where a 120-seater aircraft will take off with 80 passengers instead doing co-sharing.

Globalization where they don’t have equal participation, he said is neo-imperialism because you do your part and get out of it, but the other person doesn’t have the capacity where you are doing 10 flights to Nigeria and you are doing nothing and you say we are doing globalization, it is not going to work because there is not equal participation.

He pointed out that a lot of people see the industry high in terms of technology, noting that the only technology we are talking about is the departure control system and so we are very far when it comes to technology.

He queried that the operators sell tickets, agencies sell tickets and the same passengers goes to Jibowu to send his cargoes because we are not maximizing the use of our resources.

“We need to develop a digital system that will be able us to bring all these together in term of personal, capacity. So many people work in Nigeria and are doing their job in UK and other countries, so why are we selling tickets and cannot sell tickets for cargoes online.

“We need to be very creative about our ideas and use technology to be able to bring together for maximizing and utilizing of our resources so that we will be able to make money even with the existing infrastructure that we have today,” Yadudu said.

Former Managing Director, FAAN lamented that sometimes we hold conferences but there is nobody to follow up, noting that “we should make decision on what to do and then identify the entity to act on it.”

Speaking on Co-sharing, Yadudu opined that what NCAA can do is to encourage and once the regulation allows that is to have that agreement and register it with NCAA.

“If there is a platform and fund for it, anytime an airline carries your passengers, you get money from it because the margin is already there in a clearing house,” he added.

Yadudu mulled that anytime there is an event, conferences like LAAC, they must ensure that professionals, airline operators, stakeholders are invited through a platform for them to come to discuss the recent development, upgrade and to get feedbacks from government with less interference and more forex.

Chairman AGHAN, Mr. Olaniyi Adigun said that there should be a clearing house in the industry so that passengers will not suffer delays at the airport or with any airline to a destination where there are passengers.

Adigun said that though we have some data as NCAA have data collating and processing system on incidence in Nigeria, but we need robust data that will enable us to take decisions.