AIB chief seeks new normal for aviation

 

Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Akin Olateru, stated that for businesses to compete and survive the post-Covid-19 crisis, managements needed to think out of the box.

The AIB chief in a webinar conference with the theme: ‘‘Nigeria’s Aviation Industry: Changing Times, Changing Strategies,” regretted that the pandemic had led to the closure of viable businesses and charged all companies to review their business strategies to remain relevant in the new era.

His words: “Everybody’s income has shrunk, every family needs to readjust, the only way to survive is thinking out of the box. There is a need to begin to think of how to be a gainer in this situation; there is a need to review our strategies. FAAN, NCAA need to support businesses, bailout is not going to last forever. There must be a strong collaboration by everyone.”

Olateru noted that for the first time in world history, about 90 per cent of the world’s citizens had been restricted from travelling, either to return home or to destinations of choice, stressing that without a doubt, the most affected in travel and tourism is the aviation industry.

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Not a few believe that Nigeria would fly again, but admitted that things would not be the same. According to them, the pandemic would birth “a new normal” in the aviation industry.

Chairman, Aviation Round Table Safety Initiative (ARTSI), Dr. Gabriel Olowo, urged passengers to check-in online and avoid crowd and queues at the airports.

 

He pointed out that self-check-in services had been activated at most airports around the world and noted Nigeria could not be an exception.

He said: “Self-service check-in is needed at this time, airlines and airports should be thinking of how passengers and airport users can avoid meeting or having contact with one another. FAAN should also resolve the confusion in the tagging of airports, passengers need to differentiate between MMA1 from MMA2, but it seems to me that the airlines are ready, but the airports are still preparing.”

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Olowo added that adoption of new strategies; technologies and automation were the only key to surmounting the challenges that had been posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

A former Director-General of NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren, said there was the need to change the challenges to opportunities, adding technology and automation are the way forward.

He also canvassed for code-share, partnership and creation of local Billing Settlement Plan among the carriers for them to survive the current era.

Demuren also agitated for single-digit interest rate and availability of foreign exchange for players in the sector, stressing that agencies like FAAN needed money to put in place the new infrastructure to meet the new order.

He further disclosed that single interest rate is more beneficial to the airline industry than the much touted palliative.

According to him, “your investment is already destroyed if you borrow at 25 per cent. I think that is what we should be telling government.”

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He declared that with the current high-interest rates at over 20 per cent, there was no way the country’s carrier could compete with their counterparts outside the country.

Demuren also canvassed for corporate governance in airlines operations in the country, saying that without this, no airline or business organisation would be willing to do business with them.

He said: “Let me say this first, I am going to talk on both sides. There must be corporate governance. If you don’t have corporate governance, it’s not going to work. The money that the airlines make is not their money, it’s meant to pay for aircraft, meant to pay for the crew, meant to pay for maintenance, meant to pay insurance, navigational charges, meant to pay for fuel.”

 

Wole Shadare