In this interview, the chairman and chief executive of Air Peace, Dr. Allen Onyema says among other things that considering the cost of aviation fuel in Nigeria, harsh operating environment, double-digit interest rate, air passengers in the country pay the least fares comparatively.
Ime Akpan
Airlines operating like charity organisations
Nigeria remains the cheapest worldwide when it comes to aviation. As far back as the year 2000, airlines were charging N2, 000 for a one-hour flight. Then the exchange rate was N100. What does that tell you? That was about $200 per hour. It is not as if anything has changed, it is the exchange rate that is deceiving us. Now, we are still flying with N120, 000. It is just that the agents will buy it up or people will buy it up, then you start seeing the more expensive ones. But on the average, let’s say everything is about N150, 000 per passenger. It’s less than $100 at N1, 629 to a dollar. From Atlanta to South Carolina is about 15 minute’s flight. You won’t get anything less, depending on the day, sometimes $540 per passenger. Meanwhile, over there, they borrow money at 3%. We borrow at 35%.
For the wet lease, they are in control of the aircraft. You must do everything up front before they start flying. But the dry lease people, that is the question we encounter. Now we are going into a dry lease. We go to meetings with them. They look at the fare in Nigeria, and then compare it to your exchange rate. They will ask you how you are going to maintain the plane. Because in the dry lease, you will be the one to maintain the plane, pay insurance, do the operations, they will just give you the plane. So a lot of them are reluctant in giving Nigerian airlines aircraft, because of the fares we charge. They say it is too low. They don’t understand; they over charge us because of that. You pay a special price because you are doing one to one. That is why aircraft have become so expensive especially in summer because when they don’t have planes. And they start charging 6,000 per hour. So these are the issues. This is what happens.
Aviation fuel
Aviation fuel still remains the issue for any airline in the world, not just in Nigeria, N1, 050 or N1, 010 per litre here. Your 737 burns between 3,500 and 4,000 litres of fuel per hour. So from here to Abuja, if you multiply it, you are talking about N5 million. So once you take off one landing, there is a cost to the engine. Every cycle, there is a cost to the engine. There is a cost on insurance. Everything you do, there is a cost on the airframe, the fuselage, the landing gear, everything.
Then if that aircraft is wet leased, you will pay about $6,000 per hour. So apart from the fuel that is already about N5 million, $6,000 per hour, how much does that give you? $6,000 is almost N10 million. Then you add it to N5 million, that is N15 million. Then you add some other costs. By the time you finish, you might be getting to about N18 to N20 million. How many people are you carrying on that plane? Sometimes you are carrying half a million naira. Even if you carry a full capacity and make N20 million naira, you have already expended about N18 million.
Need for transit hub
One thing I want the government to do for us is to create a transit hub in our airports. You can imagine we do about 10 African countries. We cannot bring somebody from Douala who is going to Dakar and bring it to transit from here (Lagos). The person will first of all clear immigration, pay $400 to come to Nigeria. He will pass quarantine, he will pass through immigration; he will pass through customs and even Boy Scouts!
We are asking the federal government to make the airport transit-friendly. We want them to create, even if it is for Air Peace for now that is doing international operations, let them create a place we can, in the immediate, have it as a transit place to help this country. Anybody that comes in from one of these West Coast with all these international operations will be able to pack people from there and come to Nigeria and see them. Look at Togo; they don’t have domestic operations. ASKY is doing very well. What they do is, bring people from different places and move them out.
As they are there, they are buying things from the duty-free companies and there may be little fees that come with it to benefit the nation. So we plead with the government to give us a transit area in the airport so that we will be able to bring people and feed our international operations from all these other neighbouring countries. It is very important because other countries do it.
Lessors beating a path to Nigeria
I must commend the minister of aviation and aerospace development, Mr Festus Keyamo. We, as Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) know what we are enjoying now. We have a minister that gives a listening ear and that has trickled down to all his agencies.
And I thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for appointing someone like Keyamo that brought a lot of revolution in the industry.
I am not afraid of anybody. I have criticised some government agencies, even during this present regime. If you do what is good, I would praise you. Without the regime of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the aviation industry would have been dead by now.
The beginning of good governance starts from the kind of people you put in the saddle to run any ministry. In Keyamo, who is not an aviator, he shows the right person. Do you know that Nigeria now is about to start receiving their first dry lease opportunities?
It has not happened in a decade. Nigeria was unofficially blacklisted over 10 years ago. We are talking about issues of capacity. Oh, Nigeria lacks capacity. What did the governments in the past do about this capacity? Now we have a government that has stepped out.
The whole world gathered for us in Dublin. The whole world is visiting us now, looking at Nigeria. What can we now do in Nigeria? All the biggest lessors in the world are looking the way of Nigeria.
Dry lease plans will start coming. All these big airlines you see all over the world, they don’t even have up to 20 planes they bought with their own money, kept by them.
Everything is originally finance leased. Then in Nigeria, you have airlines with over 35 planes fully purchased by them.
Now this government is making it easier for aviation to thrive. They need our support.
So, I must commend Mr. Festus Keyamo for running around the aviation world and getting them to have a look into this country to the extent that the language of Cape Town Convention was now changed in favour of this country, in favour of dry lease made it possible for the aviation world to be looking our way.
Air Peace in the service of the nation
We have attracted respect in this country. 95% of Nigerians love Air Peace, so we don’t really get bothered about the 5%, but we plead with the 5% to love us so that the country will move forward. Air Peace came to provide massive job opportunities. I have said this several times in several fora, because somebody told me that one aircraft can create 1,000 jobs.
This is why I went into it. In fact, my bank thought I was very stupid. At first, they tried to discourage me, but later they saw my passion and they supported it. So, we will not stop going on with that spirit. We owe a duty to this country. We owe a duty to the nation, too.
I always believe in what one can do for his nation and not what the nation can do for you. And that is why, on most occasions, we want to instill that sense of belonging to every Nigerian. We want to make Nigerians proud.
That is why you see Air Peace, doing all these philanthropic things that we do that cost billions. My proudest moment in Air Peace was when we deployed all Air Peace aircraft for the service of this nation free of charge during COVID. Most countries without airlines suffered. Air Peace stepped out. Most nations in West Africa wished they were Nigerians.
We did about four flights to China for this country, bringing medical supplies for the over 220 million Nigerians free of charge. We went to Turkey to bring medical supplies for over 220 million Nigerians, free of charge. We deployed to India 12 times.
Bringing Nigerians free of charge to their country we deserve to be applauded by our nation, by everybody, including government agencies. We deserve it. Anything other than that should be questioned. The airline has paid its dues. This airline brought pride, unmatched pride, to every Nigerian. When Nigerians were being killed in South Africa, we stopped the xenophobic attacks. It was the actions Air Peace took that stopped the xenophobic attacks in South Africa. When we deployed free of charge, our jumbo jets to enter South Africa to free Nigerians, and bring them back to their homeland free of charge, Hausa, Igbo Yoruba, Nupe, Gwari, all of them became one. Nigerians were walking tall worldwide during those periods. At the same time, during the war in Sudan, we deployed.
We did not want any Nigerian to die in Sudan. We did not wait for any government to come because we know about bureaucracy. So this airline, in other climes, should be celebrated by everybody. So we have done a lot for our fatherland and we will continue to do it because we see it as a calling, not to make money, not about money. These interventions on behalf of Nigeria have cost Air peace several billions.
I don’t know how much anybody will pay us to recover that. Deploying a jet, 14 hours going, 14 hours coming from China, three times; deploying 13 hours to India, 13 hours back, so far into India, 12 times, Air Peace spent several billions of naira.
Patriotism demands that every citizen must play his own role. Air peace has always been playing this patriotic role for this country. And not forgetting that not so distant past, Nigerians were paying through their nose to undertake international travels.
Air Peace not Igbo airline
When I see you, I love you. I don’t care about the tribe you come from. Look at Air Peace; it is a mini Nigeria. Come to my management of over 28 people; I don’t know how many Igbos are there. They are not even up to five.
But we don’t care. When we appointed Mrs Toyin Olajide as the chief operating officer of Air peace, I didn’t look at her tribe. And that is what we have been courting up with over 4,000 staff of Air peace – oneness. This is a very great country. We should make use of our diversity. It is very important. It is something I already have come to address. And if you can give it to me, in most of my addresses, the same thing I have said, I have been saying it over time. We must support our own.
Enemies within
On our first flight from London to Lagos, you saw what happened, where some civil servants decided to put us in one part of the bush. That was not the government that did that. Some civil servants decided to. FAAN MD, Olubunmi Kuku called them to order; to the extent that she said no, this is our own airline. If you go to any part of the world, they give their own support. From today, C23, the avio-bridge, now belongs to air peace.
She deserves our applause. So when people are doing what is right, let’s commend them. When they are not doing well, you have to criticise.
You can meet them and point out the things they are not doing well. If they fail to do, then you can constructively criticise, not criticise to demean.
Need to patronise indigenous businesses
We must, as Nigerians, be deliberate in promoting oneness, in promoting the well-being of Nigerian businesses because they provide jobs for the people. Government alone cannot do it alone, cannot provide all the jobs.
In fact, every nation is run by the private sector. Government only provides the enabling environment. Government provides the ease of doing business.
We should begin to fight for our own. We should begin to love this country. Don’t equate indigenous businesses with the ownership of those businesses. Don’t look at it and say, oh, this business is owned by an Igbo man; therefore, let’s bring it down. This business is owned by a Hausa man; let’s bring it down. It is owned by a Yoruba man; let’s destroy it. Or it is owned by an individual; why this individual? Maybe he is making money. It seems he is making a lot of money; let’s bring that business down.
If you destroy any indigenous business that is providing massive job opportunities for the people, you don’t know where those people who lose their jobs will go. You don’t know where the next suicide bomber, the next armed robber will come from. You don’t know where the next kidnapper will come from. You don’t know who will be the next victim. It might be you; it might be your relation. It might be your child. It might be your sister or your brother or your parents. Nigerians should begin to do things that will promote the well-being of indigenous investments.
This country should be grateful to Aliko Dangote. What the man has contributed to the nation is unimaginable. Look at the millions of lives he is touching in the country. Look at the millions of people he has employed. Look at the millions of you and me that are benefiting from the things he has set up. Take his business down, millions of Nigerians will suffer. If you are going to import all those things, this country will collapse.
This country should be grateful to people like AbdulSamad Rabiu. This country should be grateful to people like Mike Adenuga. This country should be grateful to people like Jim Ovia, the Elumelus of this world.
Concluded
