By Lawani Mikairu

The Executive Director, Technical Services, Med-View Airline, Engr. Lookman Animashaun weekend called on federal Government to assist indigenous airlines to access scarce foreign exchange which the airlines need, as their operations are dollar based, through the use of the CBN official exchange rate.

Engr.Animashaun made this known while fielding questions from the media during the airline’s inaugural flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He said the disparity between the official exchange rate and the parallel market makes this call necessary as the airlines have been groaning under the prevailing scarcity of the dollar which the airlines need for their daily operations.

Animashaun who represented the Managing Director, Alhaji Muneer Bankole at the flag off of the route said the airlines were aware of the current economic situation and the dwindling foreign reserve of the country.

He however said airline business is riddled with a lot of costs and all of them are dollar based from buying spare parts to other essential services, adding that despite the skyrocketing exchange rate of the dollar, ticket prices have not increased and airlines are feeling the brunt.

“One of our major problems in the industry is dollar based, all the spares we procure are done in dollars and we bring them in on daily basis and we also have to source for dollar to fund these things, it has not been easy. You can imagine the value for the ticket has not increased but the dollar exchange rate has gone astronomically high,” he said.

On what government should do, Animashaun said, “Government should help the industry by allowing them to access funds through the use of the CBN exchange rate for our transaction.”

The Executive Director also called on government to look at the price of aviation fuel which he said account for a staggering 45/50% of the indigenous airlines’ operations and this has not helped them to compete internationally.

According to him, in Saudi where they just commenced operations Jet A1 is sold for 20 cents for their carriers and 41 cents to non-indigent carriers, this, he said is far lower that the N120 paid for the product in Nigeria despite any fluctuations from the international market.

“The amount of money we are paying for fuel is much. Government needs to come in and see what can be done to reduce the price as 45/50% of our cost of operations go to fuel alone. For example, in Saudi Arabia, their local airlines are paying 20 cents per litre while here we are paying N120 per litre.”

“If you juxtapose that you will see that there are a lot of differences. Government should be able to come out and help indigent carriers to reduce the amount of Jet A1 per litre. As at today, as the market changes, the value of the commodity changes, the price changes along with that pattern but here in Nigeria, it is stagnant.”