Despite Recession, Govs Spend Millions on Chartered Flights
State governors are still chartering private jets to travel within Nigeria despite cash crunch and their avowed commitment to cut the cost of governance. Investigations by Daily Trust on Sunday in Lagos and Abuja showed that the governors still prefer hiring private jets at exorbitant rates to travel to destinations with available schedule flights within the country.
Hiring an average aircraft to a destination within Nigeria costs about $14,000 (N6.97million at N1 to $1) per return trip that lasts not more than three hours after landing. At the expiration of the three hours, additional $1000 is charged per hour, aviation stakeholders told Daily Trust on Sunday.
This is happening at a time nearly all the states are struggling to pay salaries, with majority of them owing backlog of salaries despite receiving tranches of bailouts from the federal government.
The state chief executives indulge in this luxury of chartering aircraft only to attend political rallies, wedding ceremonies and other social events with no direct economic benefits to their cash-strapped states, investigation showed.
Flamboyant lifestyles
The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) recently resolved to make some sacrifices in view of the current economic situation in the country. Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai, who briefed State House correspondents after last month’s National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, said the sacrifices the governors agreed to make include reducing their convoys and excessive travels. They also agreed to stop dressing flamboyantly.
“We have agreed that we should lower our external outlook in terms of dressing, excessive travels and convoys. If you observe, private jet business is not thriving. It is part of deliberate decisions we took,” he said.
The jamboree continues
Our reporters who monitored some VIP movements at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT), Abuja, observed that some state governors are still chartering private jets. On December 8, 2016, about 1pm, it was observed that the Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel, flew in a chartered aircraft with some of his close aides.
Within that week, some key personalities who chartered private jets for one engagement or another included Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris; Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku of Taraba State; Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State; Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State; Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, among others.
One of the charter operators who spoke in confidence for fear of hurting his business in Abuja, said Governor Ishaku had a chartered flight sent to him in Jalingo on Thursday, December 8, 2016, from where he flew to Lagos. On Saturday, December 10, 2016, he was also flown from Lagos to Maiduguri. That cost the state some $19,500 (N9.71million) because he was given a discount.
A staff member at the GAT said there was significant increase in the charter operations in December because of the rerun elections in Rivers State. The source, who said though the patronage of private jet charter services may have dropped because of the economic downturn, weddings, elections and other special events usually bring about increase in charter activities, especially among state governors. He noted that a few business people also charter aircraft but not as often as politicians.
“During the APC rally in Port Harcourt, a lot of APC governors flew to Port Harcourt. The majority flew on a chartered Azman Air, which took most of them at once. However, when they returned to Abuja, they had to travel back to their respective states on their own. I know that Bauchi and Plateau governors chartered separate aircraft to take them back to Bauchi and Jos respectively on Thursday (eve of the rerun). The Niger State governor chartered a jet to Minna from Abuja. Minna is about 200km (a journey of 1:30mins by road) from Abuja, yet the governor chartered an aircraft at $10,000 (N4.98million).”
On January 16, 2017, as at 3pm when our correspondent visited the airport on routine monitoring, only the Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu was at the GAT to travel in a chartered jet to Abia State.
One of the operators who spoke to our correspondent under anonymity claimed that the private jet charter business had been dull with the recession biting harder.
He said, just about five governors can be said to be somewhat regular clients of charter operations. Others fly sparingly as they use more of scheduled flight operations. He said that a few senators and ministers fly chartered aircraft from time to time.
But our source noted that most of the ministers that sometimes fly in chartered jets do so on complimentary. “Some people pay for the ministers to fly on complimentary, like the Minister of State for Petroleum,” he said.
He said the governors who are more regular include Owelle Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo (Gombe), Akinwunmi Ambode (Lagos), and Godwin Obaseki (Edo). Darius Ishaku of Taraba uses private jets occasionally, it
The state chief executives indulge in this luxury of chartering aircraft only to attend political rallies, wedding ceremonies and other social events with no direct economic benefits to their cash-strapped states, investigation showed.
was gathered.
He said that in some weeks, they don’t witness more than 10 chartered flight operations, and some operators may not even fly a plane in a whole week.
“Charter operations are down now, perhaps because of the recession. Most of our customers now use schedule airlines to travel. Sometimes we park our aircraft for a week without operating a flight,” he said.
He said that despite the fact that they reduced the cost of charter operations by about $2,000, patronage remains relatively poor.
Drop in jet ownership
Although the number of private jet owners has declined by 50 per cent, according to findings at the NCAA, just as patronage of private charter companies has equally dropped, most of the people who charter aircraft are state governors who usually come to Lagos for one or two functions. An official in one of the private hangars in Lagos, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said although recession had taken a toll on the business of charter operation, there are some people who cannot do without their services.
“Can you count the number of times governors buy the normal ticket on the Lagos-Abuja route? So the business still booms despite the recession,” the official said.
At the moment, Bristow Helicopters has also diversified into something similar to charter operation with the launch of its fixed wing service on the Lagos-Abuja and Lagos-Port Harcourt routes, using its VIP facilities in Lagos.
The charter operations are handled by some cartels who serve as brokers, even though they are not travel agents. Most of them don’t have business with the NCAA, it was learnt.
Cost of hiring aircraft
Findings by our correspondent showed that a 14-seater G4-Golf Stream costs $14,000 per charter operation (to and from destinations within Nigeria). Also, Dassult Falcon 900DX, with 19 passengers, costs $14,000. A 12-seater Challenger 604 costs $13,000 while an 11-seater Challenger 601 also costs $13,000. But an eight-seater Embraer 505 costs $10,000 and Leaer Jet LJ 45 eight-seater costs $10,000.
Another operator explained the conditions in the charter business thus: “If you charter an aircraft and it takes you to your destination, after the three hours of grace after landing, each additional hour attracts additional $1,000. So the more time you keep the aircraft, the more you pay. If you paid $14,000 and land at the Lagos airport by 9am, if by 12 noon you have not taken off back to destination, from 1pm the additional $1000 accrues till the time you take off. Also, if you want the aircraft to sleep over, you will pay an additional $4,000. But that expires at 7am. So if you don’t depart at 8am, the next day, the $1000 per hour surcharge applies,” one of the operators said.
Further checks at Donnier Aviation showed that a Challenger of 12 seaters costs $12,000; Hawker of 8 eight seats costs $10,000; Global Express of 20 seats costs between $16,000 and $17,000; Golf Stream with 14 seats costs about $14,000 and a Donnier 328 costs between $13,000 to $14,000.
As obtained in other operators, Donnier’s cost is per return trip of not more than three hours, after which an additional amount of at least $1000 is charged.