Chief Executive Officer, Medview Airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, in an interview with Chinedu Eze, held the opinion that many Nigerian carriers are out of business today due to multiplicity of taxes. He spoke when the airline added a fifth aircraft to its growing fleet. Excerpts:
Why is it that domestic carriers cannot work together in order to earn more from their operations?
I found out that most of our chief executive in this industry believe that they can do it alone. I see the industry as environment where people believe in dog eat dog. It is a nonsense ideology. There is no human being that is created with all the wisdom. God gives everybody his or her own, then it is equally good for all of us to put it together and give this country the best. That is what we should be looking at now. There is no need for Nigerians to suffer, that is my bone of contention. There is no need for an industry as big as aviation to be at the level where we find ourselves. I am honest to tell you that more needs to be done in terms of projecting this industry forward. If you ask me, we are members of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), we still have the division.
There was a time we told them to come together, but they didn’t and I will tell you that shows the nonsense of the matured mind. It is supposed to be one association but when individuals have interests; there is a fall out in the whole house. Today the safest, fastest, most reliable means of transportation you can find anywhere is air transport. There is no other window to it, as I am talking to you this plane (that was newly delivered as the fifth aircraft in Medview fleet) came all the way from Taiwan, for you and me to go by road or sea we will be talking about 400 days but this is a journey they made under 24 hours.
What do you think of the way forward in the industry?
First and foremost from what I have heard from the President-elect, he felt unhappy that a country as big as Nigeria has no national airline. And we were all here to see the death of Nigeria Airways; we witnessed the death of the Nigerian National Shipping Line, so all those things he has said he needs to bring back. Because he knew them and he asked why and where and what went wrong? A country like Nigeria with the population we have, we need to have an airline that will carry our image beyond the soil of Nigeria. That is what we need, you have seen Ethiopian Airline, Egypt Air, South Africa Airways even Air Maroc, they have many aircraft in their fleet. So we too could do something better to improve this industry and to let Nigerians feel proud. This is why I am saying that the President-elect has said it many times that he promised to do something for all of us.
There are reports that indicate that about 500 pilots are unemployed. How do you think these people can be engaged by the players in the industry?
Let me be honest with you, when you are saying statistically there are 500 unemployed pilots, where are those 500 Nigerians? You need to ask yourself where are those Nigerian pilots. Because from the records available to us here, one thing we always want to assure ourselves, we have Nigerian pilots who are trained by Nigeria Airways, after the demise of Nigeria Airways, with the way the government liquidated Nigeria Airways which we believe was so sad, they all died. We lost the brains. So after that generation, it is individuals who went on their own to school to get trained as pilots. So statistically I am just telling you , go to the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria (NCAT) to find out how many pilots did they produce from so, so period to so, so period. So it became a market for every Nigerian who have the desire to go into piloting to go and have certificate up to (commercial pilot licence (CPL), and for those of them who are stronger will go for Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL).
So you find out that the question you have asked me, where are those people? Who produced them? If the country does not spend money on you, the commitment and loyalty is out of it. All those people you find with us we are just training and retraining them because the standard out there is not what you find in the market today, you just go to one aviation training school in America and you say you are a pilot. You need to go back to do training and retraining. So the country needs to reproduce, that means people like me who have benefitted from the Nigerian government and Nigeria Airways, who went through a rigorous training can commit myself to do more and more to this economy and to the country.
It has been difficult for Nigerian airlines to partner and make the better use of opportunities among them. In which way do you think government can help the airlines to work together?
On my own stake as one of the indigenous carriers in Nigeria, I still want to emphasize that we have eight airlines here, I don’t know how many are flying, but I know we have Arik, Aero, Medview, Dana, FirstNation, Azman, Overland and Air Peace. And how many aircraft do each has and how many rotations are we doing in a country where we have about 17 viable airports. Today, how many airports are we servicing? Everybody is concentrating in Abuja because that is the market for everybody to be. Everybody is now going to Enugu, Port Harcourt, Uyo and Asaba. The traffic in those areas is good but how many passengers are you carrying? We are selling tickets at a level of about N10, 000 which is not up to 50 dollars and you are buying fuel at N148 and N142 per litre. You buy as much as N160 per litre to fly to Abuja, the question is where is the money coming from to run the airline?
So the beauty of it which I believe we should be honest to ourselves and to government, viability which everyone is asking for is in the hands of almighty God. It is how you manage your resources and put money in training which is very huge. You put money in maintenance which is very huge and maintenance is done outside the country, not here. We have said it time without number, let the government invite a strong Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) company, we have over 900 MRO companies worldwide. Let’s talk to one or two of them and give them land, we are blessed with land. The first place where money goes to is maintenance; that is the secret of the game. Let’s site a very strong maintenance base with a partnership with any of those MRO companies where we can do C-check and any of the aircraft in this forum, Boeing 737 and the others.
That will reduce the cost of maintaining the aircraft. And again what they do in Europe now, is a thing that most of the airlines and most of the aircraft manufacturers like Boeing partner with some of these people, they produce spare parts under a consolidated arrangement with companies that have a contract base. So they ship those parts to these companies. In Nigeria there is nowhere you can get a single part, you have to start writing to many. So it will take quite a while before you get what you want, because the fastest you can get is Europe and that is from our partners in Europe which is AJ Waters. That is one of the strong partners we have in Europe. So first thing is that you must have established relationship otherwise you are out of the business. That means that any time your aircraft has problem you can easily get what you want. So, two things I have mentioned now, establish a strong MRO where people can easily go to maintain their aircraft. Another thing is the coordination with manufacturers where they supply the spares.
There is allegation that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has aged inspectors who have become rustic. What is your reaction to this?
I can attest to it that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority has one of the best brains. 60 to 70 per cent of those in NCAA grew from Nigeria Airways. So for that I can attest to you that those guys you are seeing there are brains because they went through the bottom of the aircraft to the end of it all. So that is the story I will tell you because I will not succumb to the stories that those people you find in those places are not it. I can attest to you I have Captain Adeola, Akerele, and I have a lot of them. They were gurus from the bottom-up in this industry. Unfortunately we don’t appreciate what we have and that is the bottom-line of our problem. Who is the head of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) today is it not a Nigerian (Dr Olumuyiwa Bennard Aliu, President of ICAO Council))? Where did he train? He went to Russia, he came to work in NCAA and that is why he was able to represent the whole world. The government needs to encourage ourselves to do a succession plan in order to get fresh brains.
Many in the industry complain that presidential movement delay flight operations. Is there no way this can be curbed?
The basis of having Mr President taking his time in the sky tells all the aircraft in the sky to give way to 001. That is the honour that is deserved to be given to the President, it is a natural thing, it is not every time Mr President flies. But any time he wants to fly we must respect him that is our number one. So what we do in most cases is that the tower will give you as notice to keep you on hold and you have a choice.
Now that we don’t have national carrier, which alternative ways can we develop manpower in the industry?
First of all, the national carrier should be looked into in this area. I want to believe that the government will come up and say let the indigenous carriers bring the wealth of their experience on board to advice the government first. There might be something that individuals have to contribute based on individual experience and the background where you are coming from. If we have to buy into the present fleet that some of us are having on ground the government might say we are taking three, four, five to bring everybody to a point and let’s start from this team and see how you can grow.
First and foremost we need commitment from individual carriers to show sincerity of purpose for whatever we want to deliver for this government. You must be honest to tell yourself, am I ready for to do this for my nation. In the capacity building just like you have said, for us in Medview we recruited 16 young pilots. These are 25, 26, 27 and 29 years old. Medview groom one in-house captain from first officer and he took the command as a captain. That is our succession plan now and he is flying. We have brought some girls; they are flying very well.
We recruited four pilots from one of the airlines in Nigeria and they are starting in May. Why? Because we knew the aircraft is coming, so we are upgrading now with four pilots with a trained captain from South Africa to upgrade to Boeing767. We are seeing the B767 at the end of May and they are going for training. So you can see our project, we are not waiting before the aircraft arrives; we want our team to be prepared before the aircraft arrives. There is no foreigner in the crew that travelled to Taiwan to bring the aircraft. The six people that went to bring this aircraft were trained by us. The building of relationship is very important, that is what we try to do here in Medview. I will build the capacity and people are taking them. I am proud to have delivered to them. Six pilots from me went to Air Peace and I am proud that they are there to support him.
You spoke about some good financial intervention from First bank could you throw more light on this, what specific ways they have assisted in this aircraft acquisition?
The first thing is to give thanks to Almighty God that has made it possible for all of us to be here today. The beauty of it is that when I mentioned First Bank, when we started this business we started with First Bank. And for one thing they appreciate Medview for is that they believe in our statement and we are committed to what we said and when they saw the progress being made by this airline, they believe that they need to support us. Today I am proud to tell you that the finances of bringing this aircraft and one of the other aircraft that has arrived was totally the support of First Bank of Nigeria PLC. We want to use this medium to give thanks to the management of First Bank for deeming it fit to think that Medview is one of those reliable airlines that is in the industry that they needed to support.
The arrival of this aircraft brings to what number of airplanes in your fleet and how is it going to boost your operation?
We are proud to say today that we have five, all classic Boeing aircraft. As you know, Boeing for the purpose of history, is the one of those first aircraft manufacturers and we have been operating a lot of Boeing for a very long time, because we grow up in the aviation industry for 40 years now and 90 per cent of my team are ex-Nigeria Airways, which I am proud to say they are committed people who have served this nation in their best capacity. So with the number of fleet now it has given us a wider scope to move beyond the Nigerian soil. As you know, we operate daily flight to Accra and we are extending the route now beyond Accra to other African countries which will bring back to Nigeria the glory of those days where African neighbours rely mostly on Nigerian airlines to bring family and friends back to their bases.
Do you have any specific route you are deploying this newly delivered aircraft to?
The first port will be Abuja-Yola. Because that route have been a committed route to this organisation.
When you mentioned Jeddah and Dubai as your intended route we know that there is an airline that is currently flying Dubai and is not making so much profit, so what strategy will you be employing?
One thing I want to say here for the purpose of history, I was born in Nigeria and I grew up in Saudi Arabia so it is different from somebody who does not know the terrain. So the business of Nigerians going to Saudi Arabia has being the business of Medview. We are one of the local air carriers that have been transporting Nigerians leaving for the past eight years and we have on record that we have lifted over 250,000 Nigerians including people from West Africa to Saudi Arabia. The people out there love Medview and that is why it is our own and we will be rest assured to tell you that there is no doubt on that.
In terms of aircraft financing and borrowing from the banks, what exactly would you want the incoming government to assist Nigerian airlines to enhance easy acquisition of equipment?
We have said times without number that the environment today from the financial point of view has not been encouraging to the aviation industry. The government need to do a lot because this is the window, the image carrying symbol for any country worldwide. It is something of shame for a country of 170 million not to have a national carrier. It is something that is painful to people like us who have grown up in this industry and knowing full well those days when Nigerian Airways used to fly to New York, Jeddah, Rome, London, seven frequencies, we knew those Nigerians don’t have any business at the airport but they will be at the airport just to see the faces of Nigerians coming to those countries. But I wish the incoming government will do better to get Nigeria back to track.
Many still believe that we have many small airlines and there is talk about mergers and acquisition; what is your take on that?
I will like to tell you that there are no airlines. How many of us with the populations of 170 million? We are not even there at all. We have really eight airlines flying if not less than that, so the beauty of it is that getting merger together as one of those advocates, we have a team relationship with Dana Air, we have relationship with Aero and I am very proud to tell you that this is the way forward for the industry. For those who have nursed that intention of doing it there is no way you can do it alone. They say watch your hand with the second hand to make it clean. So that is the window that we believe that we are going to make progress in this industry.
How would government help to make more Nigerians fly?
First, we are talking about financial institution, a dollar component in dollar is two digit, in a civilized world, I am not saying Nigeria is not civilized, but in a civilized world it is one digit-five per cent, six per cent, while Nigerian banks are two digits. They need to rethink and the dollar component is a killer in the industry. We have said it, double taxation is killing us. We are paying Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), you are paying NCAA, you are paying the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), you are paying the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). Why are we paying these taxes in a country of our own? Why do we have to pay? We must use our sky the way we want it to our own benefit. So if foreign airlines are paying its okay but Nigerian local carriers should not pay, I think the incoming president will be able to do something on that.
What is the future of this airline?
Believe me, first it is God, all the workers in this airline either they are pastor or reverend father or imam, we come together to praise God every morning. The second thing we have is the team spirit. As I am here, the total number of employee in this company I know virtually all of them including their wives, even if you don’t know me, your wife will know me because when you get home late your wife will report you to me that will make me to know your wife and know your family. So that has been the spirit.
What is your view about regulation and safety standard compared to five years ago?
As you all know Nigeria attained Category 1 safety status from the US; that shows a symbol of safety policy for a country. We are virtually the 4th or the 5th in the whole of Africa to attain this Cat 1. That is a symbol that the entire world, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of US and the other agencies that have oversight recognize Nigeria’s safety position. And we use this opportunity again to say to the Nigerian government, the autonomy of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority should not be compromised. That is what is happening in the world today and Nigerian government should give the NCAA that power of autonomy. That will make the standard of compromise zero.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/bankole-multiple-taxes-are-killing-nigerian-airlines/207585/
