Firms to invest $20bn in new airlines, maintenance facilities
Foreign investors in partnership with wealthy Nigerians are set to invest over $20 billion in two new airlines that could help to shape the airline industry’s landscape.
Woleshadare.net learnt that the promoters are also planning aircraft maintenance facilities in the country to boost airline operations.
Spokesman for Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Sam Adurogboye, declined to comment on the issue, but disclosed that some airlines could start to operate before the end of the year.
Aside these two carriers which names were not given because they were still going through the NCAA regulatory conditions, another airline that appears to have deep pocket, Jetwest, plans to debut in December 2017.
A source who preferred anonymity, because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the promoters are at advanced stage of getting their Air Operator Certificates (AOCs) and had set up massive infrastructure in Lagos that would be run ‘professionally’, taking into consideration challenges that have bedevilled existing airlines.
It was learnt that the new entrants could plan to make their operations low cost or target high income earners.
Low-cost airline in Nigeria is not popular, but one that is fast growing in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and other places.
Already, fares for one-hour flight is less than $100 (N37,000), which operators have described as hugely inadequate.
Jetwest founder, Dikko Nwachukwu, an entrepreneur with a background in aviation, said his guiding vision for Jetwest is to make air travel accessible for more people, saying “we are about democratizing the skies.”
If all goes well, Jetwest will launch this year with 100 employees and a fleet of three new Airbus 320. This could expand to 15 airplanes within three years and 40within five years, according to the promoters.
Nwachukwu sees opportunity in the vast market unserved by existing airlines, adding that Nigeria has, by far, the largest population in Africa.
“We want to do for travel what cell phones did for telecoms. Fifteen years ago, there were less than one million phone lines in Nigeria and now there are 100 million. We could have 100 million (air) travellers, and I know Jetwest will be in the middle of the revolution,” he told our correspondent.
It is yet to be known which model the new entrants are going to adopt to survive the tough aviation terrain in Nigeria with just an estimated annual traffic of 15.2 million and 15.4 million passengers that pass through Nigerian airports.
A former Assistant Secretary General of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Mohammed Tukur, welcomed the idea of more airlines in the country, saying the model they adopt would determine how far they would go.
He stated that the airline business in Nigeria could be profitable depending on how serious the promoters are, adding that most of the problems are attributable to the owners who do not know how to run airline business.
He admitted that airlines’ profit is marginal all over the world, stressing that there is still huge future for the business in Nigeria.
Tukur said with the global economic situation, every dollar counts, noting that Africa’s aviation industry is growing at 4.7 per cent, faster than any other region.
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