National carrier, facility upgrade to boost aviation revival, says Lindfield

Despite infrastructural challenges, the successful floating of a national carrier and the provision of basic facilities could make the country’s aviation blossom.

 Country Manager Virgin Atlantic Airways, Samuel Lindfield made the disclosure to Woleshadare at the side-line of a meeting he held with the media recently.

 He stated that the national carrier, Nigeria Air would be a win-win situation for all stakeholders, bring more revenue to the country and provide better choices and competition among airlines in the country.

 His words, “The country is still having infrastructure challenges, but the government is trying to put them right. If we can encourage infrastructure development in Lagos and the new national airline; allow more flights, more revenue will accrue to the country and be a win-win situation.”

 The Virgin Atlantic Airways chief explained that he assumed office in the midst of Nigeria’s financial crisis which almost crippled airlines businesses in the country.

 He however expressed his gratitude to the Federal Government for releasing over $600 million airlines’ trapped funds, adding that with the released funds, Virgin Atlantic and other carriers had been able to sell more compelling seats fares and remain more relevant to the Nigerian public.

 Lindfield stated that since the action was taken by the Nigerian government few months ago, foreign carriers have seen their businesses improve, stressing, “We have had cost severity but we are out of the crisis and things are really looking positive and we have got new aircraft on the way and the long term cooperation here is looking really bright considering the current demand and the current help of the Nigerian economy.”

  “We are grateful to the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for helping us with the blocked funds.”

 The International Air Transport Association (IATA) had in June during its 74^th Annual General Meeting in Sydney, Australia disclosed that it was encouraged by the recent developments in Nigeria where the Federal Government succeeded in clearing $600 million backlog of airline funds trapped in Nigeria.

 Director-General of IATA, Alexandre de Juniac stated, “We have has some recent success. The $600 million backlog in Nigeria has been cleared and we made $120 million of progress from a peak of over $500 million in Angola. I encourage the government of Angola to work with airlines to help reduce this backlog further.”

At the height of the crisis in 2016, Spanish national airline, Iberia withdrew from Nigeria and is yet to return.

 Followed in quick succession was United States carrier, United which stopped services between Houston and Lagos. Emirates scaled down its operations to daily flight into Lagos from the two daily flights it operated. The carrier stopped its Abuja operation.

Other carriers reduced capacity on the lucrative Nigerian route. Job losses in the aviation sector were unprecedented in the sector.

No fewer than 200 Nigerian employees of the foreign carriers lost their jobs within the period. Seriously affected by the trapped funds were Emirates, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Air France-KLM, and Ethiopian Airlines.

Airlines’ funds were released in tranches until the government cleared the entire backlog. That singular situation brought sanity to the sector.

The clearing of trapped funds by the government has buoyed revived activities in the airline industry with some of the airlines that left in the aftermath of the crisis returning while many other foreign carriers have their applications with the Ministry of Transportation indicating their readiness to begin flight services to the country.

Asked if the carrier plans to increase its frequencies to more than seven weekly flights it does, he said they would abide by the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) which stipulate frequency with British airlines in Nigeria.

Wole Shadare