Airlines Urged to Maintain Business Module for Survival

Chinedu Eze

For Nigerian airlines to survive they must adopt a business module that aligns with their business objective and stick to it in order to ensure their profitability and survival.

This was the recommendation of the Managing Director of Flight and Logistics Solutions Limited, Mr. Amos Akpan, who said that the new policy of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) that airlines must have minimum of six aircraft should be attached to individual airline schedule. 

According to him, every airline must have a business module which also determines the volume of its schedule and commensurate fleet size.

“No regulation should force a company that wants to run shuttle service between two stations to have a minimum of six aircraft. That’s waste of resources.

What about the cargo charter operators? This means they only operate when they have charter. What would they do with six aircraft? What about the broadcast journalism that uses helicopters to cover events around the cities? How many are they required to have?

“What about the sports and the crop spraying operations? Should they also have a minimum of six aircraft? The base platform for entry into aviation business is safety for all operators whether ground handling, maintenance or flight operations. But you can choose your business model.The regulator is to ensure the laid down procedures for whatever business operations is anchored on 100 per cent safety,” Akpan said.

He added: “If I choose to shuttle Kano – Abuja – Kano only twice daily in the next  three years; and my business module recommends two Embraer EMB-145, NCAA should be more concerned with safe operational procedures than with six aircraft. NCAA should be concerned that my financials from the shuttle operations should be profitable, because safe operation is funded by profitable business operations. If the operations’ financials cannot support timely routine maintenance the management would unconsciously compromise safety. This can happen to ground handling services operators, or aircraft operators, or maintenance services providers.”

According to Akpan, this rekindles the age long debate in aviation: Does profit making come first or safety in aviation business? Can a business that is loosing money maintain strict adherence to safe regulatory practices? 

According to him, this is where NCAA’S vigilance plays a vital role, noting that the economic regulations monitoring team, the flight operations and the maintenance safety inspectors must use accurate measuring tools to ensure all operators comply with their approved operational specifications.