Captain Mike Omokore, a pilot and chief executive officer of Broadlink Aviation and Tours Services Limited, speaks with ANDREW IRO OKUNGBOWA on his career, aviation and tourism as well as his passion for search, and rescue service.
Becoming a pilot
Mike Omokore’s decision to become a pilot was influenced by his exposure to travel early in life and his fascination with the aircraft. With a dad that was always on the move, travelling around and a mother that loved discovering new things, it was obvious that any of the children could catch the bug and Mike just happened to be the one. “I was born into that kind of family where we travelled around and I always got very interested about the ‘guys’ flying the aircraft. I visited the cockpit once or twice when I was young and that was the motivation really and I never forgot the experience and even in school, friends and everybody were asking ‘you want to fly a plane, you want to become a pilot?’ “It was an innovation that was still developing, so it was a very good choice, a very, very good choice I must say,” he adds, as he explains how he finally becomes a pilot. “My initial training was in Zaria, Nigeria. I joined the Zaria (Nigerian College of Aviation Technology) school in 1980. I worked in operations then I went into the flying career itself as a pilot.” He also had further training abroad where he trained on flying helicopters besides flying the fixed wings, which he was trained on in Zaria.
Flying aircraft for the first time was quite intriguing
For Omokore, the most intriguing and cherished part of his career was not when he performed his inaugural flight as a qualified and certified pilot but rather flying aircraft for the first during his training period. “My first flight wasn’t something new to me because the training period was the most intriguing part. You have never handle the control before, something to take off from the ground on your own. That was quite intriguing. “But after school, the experience was not really something to celebrate as the vigour and the kind of training that we received in Zaria was really top class. We were never automated, we experienced the real thing. So, after leaving Zaria it wasn’t a big thing again flying a plane.”
From flying the plane to delivering aviation and tourism services
He certainly enjoyed flying and he still does but according to him, “just flying the plane was not enough,” hence he decided to explore further the world of travel with the aim of delivering services to the travelling public.High hunger, he says, was fuelled by his flying experience especially lodging in different hotels at different places. “While lodging in different hotels, I started to see hospitality from a different perspective and the different services and I started to see that there is void in that area.”
The birth of Broadlink Aviation and Tours Services Limited
He decided to set up Broadlink Aviation and Tours Services Limited in 1990 both in Nigeria and Dubai, which according to him, was from the outset focused on cargo business. That is moving cargo direct from Europe and the Far East to Nigeria. “My intention when I first went to China and Dubai was to connect with the cargo consolidators and see how cargoes can be moved directly to Nigeria instead of going to Europe first,” he says. But he didn’t stop at moving cargoes alone as he consolidated on his hold by moving passengers as well across the route because Nigerians then used Beirut, China and Hong Kong routes. He says the coming of Broadlink introduced Nigerian passengers to Dubai as it is on record that his company was about the first Nigerian’s company to popularise the Dubai route among Nigerians which today has become the most travelled route by many Nigerians for both business and leisure and recently, education and medical tourism. “Since nobody goes to Dubai and they used to go to Beirut we said fine let’s try and make them go to Dubai so that we can try and ship goods from Hong Kong and China to Dubai and then we pick them up and fly direct to Nigeria,” he says, as he recalls of his early forage to the Dubai route.
Exciting days
He describes those early days as very exciting: “They were very eventful, you know when you take the bull by the horn. Very few people were ready to do that and in those days you don’t need too much money to start anything because you will always have support here and there and once you have a good product it will always bring you money itself one way or the other.
Other engagements
Besides the Dubai route and other Eastern and European routes packaged by Broadlink, he reveals that the company is heavily involved in the development of domestic tourism and Africa destinations, as he discloses thus: “I did a lot of tourism packages and handled flights to Obudu, Sao Tome and Principe and other places. “In terms of aviation, we are doing charters and we are working with a couple of multinationals and a couple of state governments. We opened the Bauchi airport and we are trying to put something together with some companies who are very interested in Benue State, so we should be doing Benue in the next one or two months.”
Growing the Broadlink brand
Despite the obvious challenges, he says broadlink has done well, as informs glowingly that “I can beat my chest and say we have done very well and we are still doing very well and there is more to be done. It is still dynamic.” He further reveals that he is building Broadlink as a brand that will outlive him. “I have never looked at Broadlink as a company that is for me because I am the founder. Is a generational thing, I have staff who have been there 15, 20 years and is a generational thing. That is the way I look at it. “I see it as something that I can hand over to another generation.
Introduction of Travelcard
The future, he says, “is very bright,” for the company as it is innovative with the introduction of a new product known as Travelcard, which he says is a booking portal for different services in aviation and tourism ranging from tickets to hotels. The new portal, he says, is universal “because the portal is compatible with Amadeus and Galileo,” insisting that the aim is to create jobs for Nigerians and Africans. The product is yet to be launched, however, he says, once the funding issues are sorted out, it will be formally launched.
A passion for search and rescue service
One aspect of Omokore’s life is his fascination with search and rescue service, which he confesses has become more than a passion for him but now a lifestyle. He informs that from the initial training and programmes he undertook while at Bristow Helicopters, he has over the years schooled himself in the finest art of search, rescue and emergency service and now a noted expert in that field with a company set up and run by him that is totally devoted to that field. According to him, his official involvement in that field dates back to the defunct ADC Airlines crash in Itokin (Ejinrin) in Ikorodu area of Lagos State. Besides, he has worked closely with the aviation authorities in handling many of the air crashes recorded since then such as the Wings Aviation crash and that of Dana Air where he was actually the one that found and handed the black box to the Accident and Investigation Department. His passion now, he says is that “I really want to make sure that we can say that we are secured in a case of emergency and we know what to do. To be very sure that emergency doesn’t hit us unawares.” To underscore this commitment, he reveals that his outfit is partnering with a company called C Three to develop an application that people can activate on their phone during emergency and help will reach them within three, four minutes depending on their location in any part of the country.
Source: newtelegraphonline.com
