BY Daniel Eteghe & Okebugwu Chinomnso
Head of Flight Operations of First Nation Airlines, Captain Tunde Adekoya has faulted the Federal Government’s N300 billion bailout funds pumped into the aviation industry stressing that airline operators were yet to benefit from the so-called magnanimity of the government.

Speaking at the 4th Captain Dafieko Sama Foundation Flight Lecture held at the Lagos State Chambers of Commerce and Industry recently in Lagos, Captain Adekoya affirmed that the Federal Government’s intervention fund came at a point where most of the airlines could not really benefit from it saying that most of the airlines could not even assess the funds.

“The recent bailout by the Federal Government of Nigeria is a case in point. The hues and cries of the Airlines were left to a point of where if not already comatose, they were prostrate. The intervention as it were, came too little and too late. Its benefit to airlines is yet to be seen”, he noted.

Captain Adekoya further pointed out that the lack of funds was one of the major reasons why Nigerian airlines could not even compete with its counterparts in the international aviation industry adding that most African airlines particularly Nigerian airlines were still groaning under huge indebtedness and lack of adequate funding.

Also speaking on the issue, former President of the National Cabin Crew Association of Nigeria (NCCAN), Mr. Olumide Ohunayo who also faulted the Federal Government bailout funds stressed that the kind of bailout funds that the government has given was not really what the airline operators needed as such could not help them to expand their operations rather, it was meant for paying back huge sum of accumulated debts owed which could not add any benefit to the airlines.

”We have not really got the kind of bailout funds we are looking for, the kind of bailout we have cannot help the airlines because it is meant to clear the debts that airlines owe to banks and that is not what the carriers need right now,” he stressed.

He further noted that the kind of funds that was needed were funds to help them in expanding their operations adding that even if they clear their debts, the banks may not want to give them another load facility to boost their operations.

”They need some funds to run and expand their operations but this bailout is not allowing them do those things. Even if they clear the debts now, the banks will not give them another facility. So it is virtually of no use as it is more profitable to the banks than the aviation industry,” Ohunayo added.

Commenting on the arbitrary hike of aviation fuel, Jet A1, Captain Adekoya said that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) needs to scrutinise its fuel policy in order to make it affordable to the airlines.

According to him, he noted that the airlines were still groaning under an arbitrary hike of fuel price in the aviation sector adding that such was a major reason while most of the airlines that could no longer compete go into extinction.

Captain Adekoya however pointed out that since the issue of fuel subsidy took the front burner in the country that the supply of aviation fuel had become very erratic affirming that it was even difficult to assess Jet A1 in most cases.

“In the 90’s, till date, when the issue of fuel subsidy question took the front burners, the supply of aviation fuel took a turn for the worse: Importation replaced domestic production leading to scarcity and erratic supply” headed.