Weiss: Our intervention in Virgin Nigeria was a sad experience

The Chief Executive Officer of mega carrier, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Shal Weiss, was in Nigeria recently. His visit was not unconnected with plans to maintain its strong market presence in Nigeria’s burgeoning air travel market. He speaks to WOLE SHADARE on new strategies by the carrier to remain strong on the global aviation market

What are your plans for fleet renewal?

There are plans to retire the old planes like B747 and A340 for the new ones that are coming. B747 by the way has been a fantastic plane. Everybody loves the B747. The passengers absolutely love it, especially the upper deck, but it has been 50 years that it has been flying and there are new technologies, better planes, more efficient, more noise efficient and we are moving to those. We are not saying we have been operating B747 for 50 years. We retired one actually last week.

What are the incentives for your customers in Nigeria apart from the new aircraft you are bringing?

For the fact that you can be a loyal customer of Virgin Atlantic and earn points on Virgin Atlantic, you can use them across Air France-KLM, it is a big advantage. The fact that you can fly to London and connect into Boston, New York and other places is a major deal and the fact that you get thee best service onboard with the best plane is huge advantage to business people, family people and to our huge customers. If you look at the market here, you know it is going to grow, that is a given.

Are you looking at expansion in Nigeria and may be in Africa in the near future, and what made you to stop the lucrative Port-Harcourt route?

We are in growth mode, so, it is not just Nigeria that we have growth. I have mentioned other routes. It is the first time we are flying to South America. We have increased our capacity to India and introduced Mumbai, Tel Aviv which by the way it is for customers here. We shouldn’t forget the pilgrimages from Lagos and want to go to Jerusalem and they can go through London. There is another dimension to our flight out of Lagos. We will grow and the airport capacity and agreement between Nigeria and UK on how many days we fly out of here is part of it. Our desires are complicated. If it was an opportunity to grow and we could do this to serve our passengers, serve our businesses, and we can do this in a sustainable way we will do it.

By 2024, you are going to operate the youngest fleet with fuel efficiency, environmentally friendly, what does that mean?

Airlines are measured by the age of the fleet, take all the planes and do the calculation of how old they are and you do the average, you get to the average. By 2024, we want to retire all the B747. The total age of our fleet is 5.3 years. We have a young fleet. Planes can fly for 20, 30 years and more. The A350 is a fantastic plane, it is very fuel efficient. If you look at the Co2 in 2024 and you compare it ten years before that, it will reduce by 40 per cent and that is one of the biggest thing airlines can do to reduce co2 emission, which I know will be also important for Nigeria. We know that the growth in Nigeria is going to be second to none because the population growth is so big. We have to it in a responsible way. That is what that means and we say we have the cleanest, the youngest and the quietest fleet which you know that for some locations which we land, noise is also a big consideration. In Heathrow, you have to have a very clear guidelines and if you don’t meet those guidelines, you will be required to pay taxes.

What is your expansion plan for the local market in Nigeria-the route expansion programme of your airline?

It is very simple. I wish we can expand more. The only thing we can increase the size of the plane by ten per cent more seats on the new plane as of August 1, 2019. That is pretty exciting.

In terms of a hypothetical question, let us assume government calls you and propose domestic operations in Nigeria or may be enter into franchise agreement, would you be able to do that?

Did you plan that question with Chief John Adebanjo? Don’t start that campaign as much as we love you guys (laughter). My take will be are we really well positioned to do this? That will be my first take. Do we really have advantage as Virgin Atlantic to come to Nigeria and really help Nigeria in the domestic market? Of course, we are excellent brand. We have experience in aviation, ofcourse with Sir Richard Branson. We were here before; we have that experience. Sometimes failing and doing it   again wouldn’t be bad. Like Mumbai, we are restarting Mumbai.

Since you‘ve been in Nigeria, how has government assisted you with your operations?

I have been here for 36 hours. Who am I to say that I know anything about Nigeria?

Eighteen years of Virgin Atlantic’s operations in Nigeria, what does next five years look like for your airline?

We want to be the most loved travel company that has got to be our mission. This is our vision for the company. Most travel companies would never say the word love and travel. It is pretty demanding and audacious but we think that if anyone can be most loved, it is Virgin Atlantic and it is because of our people. We have a lot to do; we can improve, we can innovate, we can do better. The next five years is to return to growth, return to profitability so that we can invest more in our people and customers to become most loved.

Your presence is not felt so much in Nigeria, why is that so?

I am trying. We are trying. We will do more and more of that.

In a few weeks’ time, the year will be rolling to an end, what are the fresh plans for your customers, particularly for your passengers in and out of Nigeria in 2020?

In August 2020, they will get our best plane coming. We all know that does not always get the best plane, but the best. We are giving you the best we got. There is nothing better than the A350. Being our best equipment, growing by ten per cent, increasing our presence and going to the Virgin of old, you will know that we are serious about this market. It allows you to connect freely to other parts of the world through London, other places. This is our renewed focus on Lagos, Nigeria, as essential part of our business. When things were tough here three years ago, we did not leave. It was easy to leave. It cost us a lot of money to stay. It was difficult with capital restriction of naira and the repatriation of fund, we stuck it out because we are committed to Nigeria. You are going to see better service.  Virgin Atlantic is 35 this year, flying to Lagos 18 years. You have to evolve. It doesn’t mean that we cannot be sexy. If you got on this plane, I tell you, it is a sexy plane. You need to grow to become sexier again and we are back to growth. The approach of Virgin Atlantic is different. We were all younger when we fell in love. I know love is different when you are a bit older.

You know Richard Branson was going to invest 31 per cent of stake to Air France KLM. You know it is not so again. He is not selling. He was going to sell but he is now not selling, that is a testament that he wants to remain in control of the stakes

You have painted a great scenario of the airline and for 18 years you have been in Nigeria. Every entrepreneur of course has his setbacks. What has been the challenge so far in your 18 years of operations to Nigeria?

There is no policy that has affected us that has not affected any other airline. May be we have been able to keep our heads above water and ensure we manage our relationship with government very well. We are pretty proud of the reputation that we have. There are rules and we are proud to follow the rules. We won’t go beyond what government asks us to do.Virgin Nigeria was a sad incident. We came here for the sole purpose of putting an airline in place as the pride of Africa but unfortunately, government then said they were not part of the decision that was taken to set up the airline. When a new government came, the politics, as you know it in this country, nothing is certain. If new government comes in, certain policy changes and that was what we experienced, which was very sad incident. It is a wound that is still very hurting. That was the biggest thing. Launching an airline and shutting it down after four years is painful. It was painful for money lost and people who lost their jobs. Opening an airline, if you want to succeed and to have to shut it down is heart breaking, especially when you think you can do a good service. That was the low point for us. You could see today, what we had in place then is what most of the local airlines are doing. In the past, to fly to Abuja, you have to go to the airport and look for the next available flight, but when we came in, we said, no, you can’t do that. We said you have to buy your ticket and be guaranteed that you are going on the next flight. That was what Arik did, Aero Contractors and the rest of them. That was what Virgin Atlantic did through VK. There are plenty of opportunities for us to pursue through the best ones.

You are the CEO and I believe that you are in a good position to speak for the airline. I am looking at what obtains in South Africa. Comair is on British Airways franchise. If someone approaches Virgin Atlantic to say he wants your franchise for domestic operations in Nigeria, would you accede to the request?

I know what you want me to say. It is the headline you want and I am not going to give you the headline. He will say Shai Weiss visit to Lagos said he will love to open domestic airline next year. You can write that but I am going to say it is not the right one. We are business people. We are nimble and agile. We look at all the opportunities all the time. Our problem is not opportunities, our problem is focus. You need to focus. When we did not focus, we made mistakes. We did not grow for the past five to seven years. We have been cleaning up everything that we are back at. So, if there is a great opportunity please send it and we will take a look. It’s about asking yourself; can you do something unique not just fly a plane? Can you do it in a better way, can you do it in a way passenger appreciate your services than somebody else’s.