Disquiet over national carrier

First and foremost, it is worth mentioning that the majority of countries in Africa and possibly in the world have national carriers with ownership ranging from private entities to a majority or minority state ownership shareholding.

But the buzz around what people described as a wonderful idea if the government pulls it through is waning as this may end up as another failed project considering the fact that the governments before now had tried unsuccessfully to give the country a national airline, which has divided opinion among those who believe in the idea and others who believe is an unprofitable venture. However, an indirect confirmation of this assertion was made by the Minister of State Aviation, Senator Hardi Sirika when he told journalists recently, in Abuja, that a group of six firms, including German carrier, Lufthansa, had been appointed to advise the government on how to return Nigeria as the aviation hub in the West African sub-region.

The Minister said the advise from the International consultants could lead to a number of improvements on the growth of the sector, which he said has all it takes in revamping the country’s economy quicker than most others. But with the International agencies’ reports supporting having an airline to bear Nigerian colour and maximum utilisation of its callsigns for international operations, coupled with revenue from BASA, observers have already concluded that the real issue will be the efficient management of the new airline to be introduced.

Experts who spoke with Woleshadarenews said setting up an airline takes a lot of process, commitment and funds especially if the government is midwifing it. Year 2018 is around the corner, except the Federal Government review its modus operandi, that date does not look realistic. For now, there seem not to be technical partner that has accepted to work with the would-be carrier, no plans to buy or acquire aircraft or any tangible thing on ground to suggest that the government is serious about the project. Time is of essence if the administration is desirous of bequeathing a legacy to the country considering the fact that Rwanda Air is becoming a huge force in the continent and competing with many other African carriers.

Africa has over 100 airlines operating flights all over the continent with only a small percentage of them are completely based in Africa or owned by Africans. But there are very few that cater to the ordinary Africans with prices that are affordable and make it easy to travel through the region.Aside more established carriers such as Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, Royal Air Maroc, South African Airways and EgyptAir among others; other African nations are racing against time to float airlines that would also take part in the market share both in Africa and overseas. The revival of the national airline is in high gear, which is as a result of the repeated calls from a section of the society and the Executive having goodwill to revive Uganda Airlines. In Africa about 47 out of 54 countries own airlines or have a majority shareholding or minority shares in designated national airlines or flag carriers.

The benefits of having a national carrier cannot be underestimated.

The benefits achieved by Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt and South Africa through their respective airlines are there for any interested party to see. In the East African region only Uganda lacks a national carrier; even young Rwanda has a high flying Air Rwanda. Let’s first study the tourism numbers, according to the World Tourism Organization, the most visited countries in 2015 by international tourist arrivals in order are: France, United States, Spain, China, Italy, Turkey, Germany, UK, Russia and Thailand. International tourism receipts grew to $1.26 trillion in 2015, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 3.6 per cent from 2014.

The World Tourism Organization reports the following African countries, South Africa, Morocco, Tanzania, Mauritius, Tunisia, Uganda, Sudan, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Ghana as the top 10 tourism earners for the year 2015. It’s evident that the billions of dollars raked in by tourism are also shared by the national carriers of the respective countries. Of the top largest airlines by passengers carried, four of them are based in United States; three of them are based in China.

Well here we could argue that US and China are vast territorial countries. The list is also populated by Irish and UK low cost budget airlines Ryanair and Easyjet making it to the top 10 respectively. When it comes to fleet size, still five out of 10 are based in US, China has two, Germany, France and Canada with their respective national carriers – Lufthansa, Air France and Air Canada making it to the top 10. In terms of the countries visited by airlines, the top four airlines are national carriers namely Turkish, Lufthansa, Air France and Qatar Airways.

It’s evident that a functional national carrier spurs growth in tourism, which is a multiplier effect in the profitability of the airline business. Expert’s perspective A former Assistant Secretary- General of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Mohammed Tukur, said an airline business needs top management, adding that aviation is a highly volatile business and needs great care and handling. He explained that the main reason why most of national carriers have gone under is mismanagement. “I don’t want to speak about US or UK, which have no state owned national carriers, these are developed countries that can’t be compared to a least developed country such as Nigeria.

Besides, those countries already rake in billions of dollars and pounds respectively from the various tourism, educational and health facilities, which we don’t have in Nigeria”.

A national carrier will need the skills base. Before we begin to talk of the huge benefits of what a national airline would bring to Nigeria, the tourism hotspots need to be renovated. When a tourist lands in Nigeria, what should be our hotspots? Nigerians would have to visit some of these city tourism sites and understand how we can utilize our God given natural resource in attracting tourists.