The Managing Director and CEO of Aero Contractors Limited, Captain Ado Sanusi, speaks about the need for the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority to stick to its regulation in order to maintain safety standards in the sector. Chinedu Eze brings the excerpts:

It seems it has become a mode of operation allowed by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) that commercial airlines can use the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) of other airlines to operate schedule service. Is this in tandem with Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulation (Nig. CAR 2023)?

The regulation is very clear. Nobody can operate a commercial airline without an Air Operator’s Certificate. And the Air Operator’s Certificate has been defined with the five phases, so I don’t want to bore the people reading this by quoting the regulations. But the regulation is very clear on this. You cannot operate an airline until you have secured an AOC and to get an AOC there is five-phase process you go through to get an AOC. There is no way you can step aside any of the five steps or latch at another company’s AOC. If you are going to operate an airline you must have an AOC, period. 

So, it can be said that the airline operating with another’s AOC is a negation of the rule?

I understand what they are saying that they want to encourage other airlines to come in, but the rules are the rules, you cannot bend the rules to encourage growth. I believe that whatever needs to be done, needs to be done right. If you want an airline you go through the process of getting an airline. You cannot say, oh I want an airline but I will operate under a certain person and then market under another person.

Don’t you think this may affect the credibility of the regulator if it is not doing the right thing?

This is a very interesting question, talking about the credibility of NCAA. Of course, we have to say the truth and to criticize constructively for it to be effective. So, my criticism or my comments should not be construed as negativity towards the regulatory agency. It should be looked at as somebody who has looked at the system, who has been in the system for a while and who believes that there is room for improvement. And I am going to tell you this. I was outside the country when I was confronted with questions such as this. They were expressing concerns for Nigerian aviation and they were asking me questions regarding the credibility of our industry. So, I defended the agency and said it is very credible. And of course, we are having some challenges like other regulators. 

But having said that; any industry that is suffering or that is experiencing consistent challenges should look inwards. The federal government intervened when banks were having financial challenges and frequent lack of payments. AMCON was created and the banking industry was cleaned up and now we have very good banking industry and Nigeria is well known on the strict regulation regarding banking. It is the same thing in the aviation industry. We are now seeing consistent failures in so many fields. 

Passengers being unruly, pilots allegedly being caught with substances and airlines are not doing what they are supposed to do in the AOC arrangements, which pose consistent gaps in the system. What does that tell us? It tells us that we need to do a thorough clean-up and ensure that the regulatory agency earns the respect of the industry, just as Central Bank has now earned the respect of the banking industry. So, we need to do that. And it is not that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority is lacking or something, it is the ecosystem, complete failure of the ecosystem. It is the aviation ecosystem that needs to be looked at.

And if we do not do that and we keep whitewashing it, thinking that we will get there one day; we will never get there. Those small problems stick out. An AOC applicant does not complete his process, but he was given AOC. An airline had fake documents, he was still allowed to continue. An airline did not have insurance, he was still flying.

When I met our colleagues outside Nigeria, I found out that they were abreast of events in the aviation industry in Nigeria, from the questions they asked me. Everything is in our media and we are telling the world that our system has not evolved to checkmate all these things. And that is the problem that will continue to manifest with the aviation industry; unless it is checked, unless we do what the banking industry did, flush out, clean, and have a brand-new start.

Considering the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), what impression do you think the world will have about Nigeria?

You see, at the world stage, Nigeria is well-respected because of the high safety level we have recorded. Nigeria is well-respected. But all the negative news that we are hearing from Nigeria is not healthy for us. Any news that is published in the media is published to the world, so we are quickly eroding what we have achieved. I don’t know the standing of Nigeria now because recently the publications that we are having, the reports that are coming out of Nigerian aviation industry not that good. It is not that great and it is fast eroding the good will. We have achieved good things over the years, but what we are doing now is fast eroding that goodwill. And that is why they come to ask questions when we attend seminars at international fora. 

Why would they ask what’s happening in aviation in Nigeria unless they are having a second thought? Some doubt, scepticism. Oh, what is happening? And then you now start explaining, ‘Oh, this is an isolated incident’, this is this, this is that, but that is exactly what is happening. 

How do you see growth in air transport in Nigeria in relation to passenger movement, aircraft availability and cost of flight ticket?

For me, I believe in organic growth of the market. And IATA (International Air Transport Association) said that there will be growth throughout Africa. Nigeria is part of that growth. The growth IATA is talking about is the passenger growth. They are not talking about growth of aircraft. Now, Boeing and Airbus have already said there is a shortfall of aircraft requirement, single aisle. That is the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320s. Even the leasing companies have said yes, they agree there is a shortage of those aircraft globally. So now, if you break it down to Nigeria or to West Africa or to even Africa, you have a growth of passengers. So, there is demand, we want to fly, we want to fly.

And then you have a shrinking aircraft size where the single aisle, the Boeing 737 and the A320 families becoming unavailable in the fleet of manufacturers and also the lessors, the people that lease the aircraft out. Then what it means is that there will be one, increase in fares. Two, there will be fares competition. And three, the market will be so volatile.

Okay, the competition will be on who?

Of course, the competition will be on the people that can give you the aircraft. All airlines will be there trying to grab what they can have. Then we will not serve the thirsty market of the growing demand. And so, definitely, the airlines will be trying to meet the demand, increasing the prices, trying to meet the demand. While the leasing companies will try and lease the aircraft, of course, they don’t have it. The manufacturing companies will try to manufacture more airplanes and put them in the market. But how does it affect the Nigerian market? That is the most important. 

What I see is, because we are not strategic in our thinking, we are not strategic in our response to global threats; we are almost 10 years behind. So, you will not feel anything apart from the price increase. We are almost 10 years behind in terms availability of aircraft and response to market demand.

Do you think that airlines may not be flying to some airports due to limited fleet?

Nigeria is peculiar, because we have some specific airports that are doing very well. And the passenger traffic is predictable all the time. So, changing the dynamics might be a bit of a challenge. But I don’t think anything is impossible if you want to change the dynamics. So, you can actually change the dynamics. But, as you said, airports are critical in the growth of the aviation industry. And if we do not change the dynamics of what we have we are going to have problem in future.

Now, what do I mean by the dynamics? We understand that we have X number of millions of passengers coming to the Murtala Muhammed airport. Do we want to maintain that? Yes, we want to maintain that. Then let us grow the airport to accommodate that number. And let us invest in that airport so that we can harness or we can have ROI (return of investment) from our investment.