The chief executive officer of Topbrass Aviation, Capt. Roland Iyayi, in this interview at the 23rd annual conference of League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) held in Lagos recently speaks on multiple taxes levied on the domestic airlines, the harsh environment which the carriers operate, the award of multiple destinations to foreign airlines by ministry officials, the lack of quality representation when Nigeria signs bilateral and multi-lateral agreements, among others. He granted the interview during the 23 annual conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) held in Lagos recently.
Ime Akpan
What, in your opinion should be done to grow aviation industry in Nigeria?
To grow aviation there has to be a deliberate and consistent policy geared towards ensuring that the airlines which are the primary players in the industry can actually survive. That you have airlines failing is not because they can’t run the airlines; it is because the environment in which they operate is extremely harsh and not even conducive for growth. We have multiplicity of charges in the industry that are inconsistent with the purpose of growing the industry. On the one hand we have government agencies that are supposed to be cost recovery agencies trying to grow their internationally generated revenue. That is an inconsistent objective with the industry growth. So, all these things are things that need to be looked at. Unfortunately…most of the things we do in the industry are borne out of knee-jerk reactions. Something happens we react, rather than being proactive. Essentially, when you put a policy framework in place, it is assumed to be proactive because you are looking at the issues and you are proffering solutions by way of articulating a course that you want to chart; to say this is the path we are going to tread over the next X number of years to be able to see that we can grow a particular segment or segments of the industry an stay consistent with it. Not to say we have done it for few weeks and then say it is not aligning with what we want, so we change it. If you have inconsistencies you can never see the benefit of any policy you put in place. We have had policies in the past, but they have never seen the light of day, more or less. We have had things put in place to politicise the industry, we have had things done to make people look good, not necessarily doing their jobs. So, these are issues that I believe the government needs to address holistically, not in bits. All these things are intertwined; you can’t separate one from the other. When you formulate a policy you must review the adverse impact vis-a-vis the benefits and then do cost benefit analysis to see how it adds up at the end of the day. Do we get a plus or a minus? That is the way a policy is put together but not the one that somebody says NO, we are doing this today, block it this way without looking at how it affects everything else. Essentially I am saying let us stay consistent, let’s focus, let’s look at the issues and focus on the issues, put a framework in place to address those issues, allow the industry enough air to breathe so it can grow.
In the area of international politics how do you think the federal government can come in to help Nigerian airlines to survive?
When it comes to international operations, I mean the government is the custodian of the bilateral agreements and the multi-lateral agreements. Those agreements are not just pieces of paper; they are negotiations. What it means is, let’s take British Airways for instance, between Nigeria and the UK you have what we call a multi-lateral agreement, which is why you have British Airways and Virgin Atlantic but out of Nigeria you really don’t have any operator per say. We had Med-View; it ran into trouble. It was operating out of Gatwick. Ideally, when you negotiate a multi-lateral you will insist that each country must grant the designated operator prime access to the major market, not the secondary market. So, Med-View going to London, we should have negotiated in the multi-lateral that Med-View must be given good slots not just slots, good slots at Heathrow Airport, it must be part of the multi-lateral agreement. So that is the role of the government because if you say we have designated you to fly, fly to where? At the end of the day Med-View started going to Gatwick. Gatwick is not the primary airport that Nigerians would want to fly into. So it affects the market share that Med-View is able to corner. But if you put there in the multi-lateral a policy direction that will show that if you are giving British Airways one, you will give Med-View one, it changes the dynamics. But when you allow them to dictate, because they will say well this is what we do in our country, if that is the case then you can fly to maybe Minna instead of Lagos. Until you give a Nigerian carrier Heathrow Airport, we are not talking. That should be the stance of government and it should be the same thing in every international market. That is what you call aero-politics. But the airlines can’t play it; it is the government that can play it.
What is behind this weak stance of Nigeria?
We have a ministry running aviation affairs; the ministry is occupied by civil servants, the civil servants are not core technocrats when it comes to aviation. These are people with different backgrounds, maybe with political science, history and all the rest of them. But if you have core aviation professionals, people who are conversant with negotiating bilateral agreements and people who are conversant with the dynamics of the industry internationally, then it makes it a lot easier to go into another market and negotiate because you understand what you are negotiating. But if you have civil servants who have absolutely no clue as to what it means to negotiate bilateral agreements then we have a problem. So, until you understand that the weaknesses are the ones that we have introduced, I mean rather than take your A Team, we are taking a C Team. It is not helpful. So when you go into an international negotiation you go with your best and your best are not necessarily people you have sitting in the ministry. You must get them together, people who understand the dynamics of the industry both locally and internationally. And of course people who can stand on their own to say well, this is what it is and this is what we are going to get. Until we have that we are not going to move forward. So that is essentially the problem.
You often talk about Ethiopian airlines flying to different destinations which might kill the local carriers. What would you suggest to the government to address the situation?
Let me say this, Ethiopian Airlines and indeed every other international carrier flying into multiple designations in Nigeria are carrying that out under what you call a commercial agreement. What that means is that the airline besides the designated airport in Nigeria which typically is Lagos will now go back to the ministry and say we want to be able to operate into Abuja, Port Harcourt or Kaduna and they will say to the ministry that for every passenger we carry on any and every of these routes we will pay you $20. Now by virtue of that agreement the ministry looks at it and say well, we will have a potential of say maybe a million passengers from this operation in a year, that is $20 million and they sign the commercial agreement to the detriment of the domestic operators. So, you are getting $20 million from an international operator. But do you put that back into the system to grow the domestic operator or you are taking that away from the industry and you have allowed the domestic operators to just wallow and die? So, the issues are very much of commercial interest of the government. If the government would look at the benefits that an airline provides to its local economy, particularly over and above the contribution by way of a meagre $20 million for instance annually from an international airline, then it will do the needful. Aviation has what we call the footprint; it is not necessarily the number of passengers you carry, it is the enabler of the economy. You have tourism, agriculture, oil and gas, all that rely on market access and the only way you can have market access id aviation. That is the cheapest and easiest way. So, for as long as we do not look at this as a fundamental issue to address, then we have a problem.
