The wide-bodied bird lifted off gracefully, shooting powerfully into the night sky .On the tail end of this elegant bird is the inscription: Ethiopian Airlines. Set up in the early 1990s– almost two decades ago, the national airline of the small African country, Ethiopia, has grown into an enviable aviation brand.
By contrast, our former national airline, Nigerian Airways was liquidated and sold off in bits and pieces since the early 1990s. A statement to mis-management, inefficiency, corruption and greed, the airline collapsed under its own weight in the late 1980s.This was howbeit, under various Military dictatorships which the country was subjected to.
Nonetheless, with the return to democracy in May of 1999, the Olusegun Obasanjo administration made another attempt at floating a national carrier. Obviously conscious of the failure of the wholly state-owned Nigeria Airways, this time around, he decided to make it a public-private sector partnership. For good measure, he went for a foreign partner, Virgin Atlantic Airline. Against the high expectations that greeted its birth, the national carrier known as Virgin Nigeria Airline unraveled in 2006?when Virgin Atlantic pulled out of the partnership. And the government later sold off the airline which was renamed Air Nigeria to a private investor, Jimoh Ibrahim.
Since then, talk of a national carrier has been off and on the radar of Nigerians. For the Nigerian government , it has been will it or wouldn’t it? When it comes to the issue of a national carrier, the government has been ambivalent. Well, up till now. But early this year, after a careful consideration of the issue, the Aviation minister Princess Stella Oduah has taken the bold step of putting the issue of a national carrier back on the national radar. The minister believes very strongly that Nigeria needs a vibrant national carrier.
And the reasons are compelling. Both national pride and economics are at stake. For most of the early 2000s,the Nigerian government received severe bashing from the Nigerian Press which lamented the collapse of Nigerian Airways and emphasized the fact that several other national airlines on the continent such as Ethiopian Airlines and Kenyan Airways were doing quite well. It particularly hit home that these national airlines were those of smaller African countries which typically looked up to Nigeria for leadership in both politics and business. How ironic!
That may have gingered the efforts of Obasanjo administration into making another valiant attempt at having a national airline in year 2005?The partnership involved the Nigerian government, Virgin Atlantic and Nigerian private investors including a handful of banks that also financed the airline.
Why a national carrier?
The rationale for a national carrier is compelling in itself. Bilateral air transportation agreements including several BASA and ‘Open Skies’ policy agreement inspired by the US government favours national carriers and offers countries with well developed and efficiently managed international airlines, including a national carrier— a lucrative source of revenue.
The absence of a Nigerian national carrier since 2007 has resulted in the designation of one or two privately-owned Nigerian airlines as ‘national carriers’– for the purpose of taking advantage of BASA and other international aviation agreements and policies. These airlines include Bellview, Arik Air, Virgin Nigeria, and Air Nigeria.
Experience has shown however that, these various airlines—despite their spirited efforts– have not been able to meet the yearnings of Nigerians or the Nigerian government for an enviable national carrier. Some of the easily noticeable shortfalls of these airlines include arbitrary increases in ticket fares, arbitrary cancellation of scheduled flights, poor in-flight service quality, inefficiency, lack of funds, old aircraft requiring more periodic maintenance; dearth of technical expertise and cash flow problems, lack of regular maintenance of aircraft; labour issues, and management problems.
That is not to say that these problems are peculiar to private airlines. But aviation is a capital-intensive business and also a strategic sector of great national importance. If for any reason, a private airline which was serving as a national carrier goes under—bankruptcy—the Federal government would lose a lot of revenue from operating its lucrative international routes which are covered by various bilateral agreements. When such happens –the government would be left with two choices—either pump in money to the private airline to resuscitate it, or set up its own airline to fill the vacuum. It is mainly for these reasons, various national governments have been involved in aviation for decades.
Experience in more mature Western markets have shown that state-owned and private –owned airlines do fail or run into financial turbulence. Examples include Alitalia, the Italian state-owned airline which failed; Luftansa, which has had financial problems in the past, American Airlines; North West airlines which went under. Even the much vaunted British Airways two years ago had some financial problems which were aggravated by workers union strikes– to press for slashed workers benefits.
Some of the gaps that having a national carrier should fill which have been correctly identified by the media before now include the loss of revenue by government on operating the lucrative international routes covered by BASA. Nigeria is also at a disadvantage under the ‘open Skies’ regime due to the lack of a strong national carrier and other strong Nigerian airlines plying international routes.
The economic collapse of several indigenous airlines and wobbly finances of many existing ones again re=emphasize the need for a national carrier. The issue is not if there is a need for a national carrier, but what form it should take. The Aviation minister has made it very clear that she wants a vibrant aviation industry in Nigeria. And she is not only talking about recreating a national carrier, she has also reiterated plan by the Aviation ministry to look into the problems hampering the growth of private indigenous airlines in the country and see how to assist them. Because the industry can only be vibrant in the country if there are several strong players, not just one or two.
Would the proposed national carrier be financed and managed exclusively by the Nigerian government? Would it be a joint venture between government and the private sector? That has been the issue, really. Whatever option the Aviation Minister, with the support of technocrats at the ministry and beyond decides to take, what it perhaps requires, is a strong will to make things happen.
