By Prince Okafor

Meanwhile, airlines have called on the Federal Government for intervention especially events  militating against the growth of the industry.

They lamented that there is nothing wrong in allocating more forex to them as the one they are getting currently is not adequate.

In a chat with the Chief Operating Officer, UnitedNigeria Airline, UNA, Osita Okonkwo, he stated that they had suffered double jeopardy on access to forex, availability and its cost.

He said: “If you look at the cost structure of every operation, you have the aircraft which in most cases measured on hourly or circle bases for engine, mainframe, and any other things you have in the aircraft.

“You have to know that every component has a diminishing value. You have an aircraft and when it reaches a certain point you have to go for some checks, whether it is the nozzle, carbon seal or any parts.

“The first thing you do when you start this operation is to be sure that you have an engine, maintenance reserves, landing gears and others. They all have life. Everything is like a clock. You cannot escape maintenance. “If you acquire that discipline of providing so that when it comes to your C-check, you don’t have issues with sending it. You just wait until that time. Aircraft cost is one big chunk of it which you have to manage. The second component is the operating cost which is basically fuel.

“Consumables, spare parts handling charges, all related to particular operations. When we started, fuel was between N200 to N300. As of December 2021, we were buying fuel at N350. Suddenly, it rose to N500, which was when the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) started shouting. Then, it was around N790 and N800 now. “This is the same with forex. You know that 99 per cent of input into an aircraft is forex. There is nothing we produce in this country as far as aircraft is concerned.

“We suffered double jeopardy, one of access to forex, the second is availability and cost. It moved from about N400 per dollar plus. At some point we got a dollar at N900 if you are not luckyto get it from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“Currently CBN meets about 20 to 30 percent of our needs and that takes time. You have to queue. Meanwhile, you have an Aircraft on Ground (AOG) that you have to get the spare parts. It has really been difficult. What we have seen is escalating cost of operation. It is escalating at a very rapid rate.”

Also, an Aviation analyst, Olumide Ohunayo argued that the shambolic monetary policies in the sector need to be tweaked along with the security architecture.

He said: “The federal government needs to give the industry access to an official window for critical operating expenses.

“Rather than wait for Dangote’s refinery of the Turn Around Maintenance, TAM, of the nation’s four refineries, crude oil should be supplied to the modular refineries to start refining to make Jet A1 available for the operations.“Taxes and charges associated with Jet A1 can be suspended temporarily pending the return of normalcy.”