SANUSI: HOW WE PLAN TO REVAMP AERO CONTRACTORS
ment of a national carrier and attraction of maintenance facility, but so far, there is no sign that any of these would be achieved in the foreseeable future. What is your take on these promises?
Well, if you say that the government is not doing anything I do not think I will agree with you because it is not the true reflection of what is happening in the sector. I believe the government is doing a lot; there are so many things that are being done behind the scene. The rot in the aviation industry is not something that could be cleaned up in a couple of months or in 36 months.
You know when you have a free fall, first you have to stop the free fall and then you can now start recovering before you start making progress. So I believe there are lots of things that are being done behind the scene and by the time we are going to start seeing the fruits of it you will see that a lot has been done. Bu the vision of the federal government is to first look at what caused this rot and then address them and I believe that is seen in the way they are involving a lot of stakeholders to find ways to move the industry forward.
Of course, there will be disagreements, there will be complaints of the pace at which the progress is being made and that is normal in a democratic setting; people have to criticize and constructive criticisms are very healthy and they are good for good governance. So I believe that a lot is being done behind the scene and the government of the day has no other choice than to make it work and to do the right thing to ensure that the aviation industry is repositioned where it belongs. It is the catalyst for economic growth. I sincerely believe the federal government has put a lot of emphasis on moving the industry forward.
It is believed that if we have airfield lightening in all the airports it will enable all the airlines to operate for more hours and enhance their profitability. Also if aviation fuel is available at good prices it will also help the airlines. What role do you think government should play to solve these problems?
First and foremost, I have to say that the federal government through the Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has done considerably well to address the aviation fuel scarcity and also to address the prices of the product. Recently I have seen so many letters coming to my office for the oil marketers for downward review of the price for Jet A1, which means that the polices that they have put in place two to three months ago is now working. And with the interaction I have been having with the fuel marketers, they are assuring that with the new policy that they have seen, the fuel scarcity will be a thing of the past especially as it concerns Jet A1.
On the issue of the pricing, I think there is a lot to be done, I believe the infrastructure must be worked on and that is my appeal to the federal government to look at the infrastructure especially in Lagos. From Apapa to the airport, there should be a pipeline that would transport this fuel. Because the issue of seeing at times 200 to 300 tankers in our airports or close to our airport is an eyesore and I believe we should do something to stop that. It will also reduce the cost, it will ensure free flow of the product and it is going to also enhance safety. This infrastructure improvement should go all the way to all the other airports in the country; we should try and take comprehensive look at delivery of Jet A1 to most of the airports in the country. It is an integral part of aviation; you cannot have an airport without sustainable supply of Jet A1. So it has to be looked at holistically, but I believe that with what we are seeing now they will definitely address the situation.
On the issue of airfield lighting, I have always said that we should not have at this point in history of our country whereby state governments would build airports and allow them to operate only daylight flights; they should be 24 hours. You cannot have an airport and you say it is only 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. Such daylight airports are supposed to be local government airports or private airstrips or very, very strong small aerodromes. But as far as a state that has an airport that serves the people, it should be a 24-hour airport or at least should have the capacity to do a 24-hour service.
This is also in case of safety, in case you want to fly a patient out of the airport to a bigger hospital in another state, it also gives you that opportunity and that capacity to do it. So I believe all the airports should have airfield lighting, it is not something that is very expensive. It is something that we just need to put a policy in place and it can be implemented. We can use solar lighting for the airports that are hardly used, it is something that can be achieved if we deliberately put a policy together and ensure that it is being followed. The technology for the solar lighting for the airport is a proven technology and I think it can be implemented in most of these airports that are not high traffic airports.
Do you think that these oil tankers at the airport will expose the airport to fire and insecurity?
Of course, they are a danger to the public safety, they are also not the best to have close to the airport and they also constitute security hazard because in case somebody with bad intension wants to start something, he can go and do that and then cause a lot of havoc. The moment you have a concentration of over 300 fuel tankers carrying highly inflammable liquid, then there is safety concerns. So I think it is very important that the federal government looks at it as quickly as possible. This is something that can be done through private public partnership (PPP) and the pipeline can pay for itself, because now we are paying a lot of money to transport it and if we put 50 percent of that into making sure the pipe works, of course it will have a huge safety impact.
Are you optimistic that there will be a turnaround of the industry?
I believe there will be a turnaround of the industry; I believe we cannot go below this point in the history of our aviation industry; I believe if we go any further in this, then it is a total collapse of the industry. So I think the turnaround is just by the corner, I think we are just managing the crisis now, I believe the stabilisation is coming in and the moment you do that you start the recovery process. And I believe there will be a lot of policies that will be rolled out in the near future to ensure sustainability of the aviation industry. The biggest problem that we have in the industry is to have a viable airline that is sustainable. And I think Nigeria is capable of taking three major airlines that are viable. Among the three major airlines, I believe at least two could do regional and one can do regional and international and one can be domestic. I believe the market is there, I believe we can harmonise this industry in such a way that it can be sustainable.
The era of failing airlines should be a thing of the past and I think we should look at doing things differently. Because the problems is, if we continue to do things the same way you are doing and you keep failing then there is something wrong. We must not allow status quo to continue, we must do something differently so that we can get a different result. But if we keep doing something and we keep getting the same result that means there is something wrong in what we are doing, so we have to do something differently to get a better result.
You previously held the view that you do not support national carrier; do you still hold that view?
It is not that I do not believe in national carrier, I have always said that the country is undergoing recession; the country is undergoing a lot of challenges in other sectors. And I said my belief is that for the federal government to put money down to start an airline would not be a priority, and I still maintain that. I still maintain that there are so many sectors in the country that require more money than establishing an airline. Having said that, that does not mean the federal government should not look at the aviation sector in total and support it. It should support it because it is the key in the economic growth of the country. But if you ask me if the federal government has $50 million to put into an airline to start a national carrier and they can put that $50 million in healthcare, I think it is a noble area, they should put it in healthcare.
This is because more citizens of the country will benefit more in the healthcare that they are going to put the money in rather than starting an airline with $50 million. You can only buy, probably if you are lucky two to three new aircraft, turbo props or you can even buy one Boeing aircraft. So the investment of that amount of money for a country that is undergoing a lot of challenges would not be a priority at least for now.
You know from the beginning Ethiopian Airlines was enthusiastic of coming to play a role in Arik, but from the feelers we are getting from Ethiopia, it is like they want to come back to takeover?
Well, I cannot talk for Ethiopian Airlines but I do not think that we have exhausted all possible avenues to put up a team together. Managing airline is not something that is rocket science, so I do not think we have exhausted all possible avenues in Nigeria to see that we put a team together. We need to put together an expert team that is very good in finance/ risk management, corporate governance and commercial. I do not think that out of the over 180 million people that we have, we cannot come up with a very good team that can run a formidable airline. After all, we have people running banks successfully so why can’t we replicate what is happening in the banking industry in the aviation industry.
People should understand and let us demystify this aviation industry. Of course, everybody that sees an airplane flying will think that it is a mystery seeing this metal flying in the air. But believe me, it is the same principle of economics, accounting and human resource management that are applied in most of the banks and most of the successful companies that can be applied in an airline. The only thing that is a mystery behind the metal in the air is technology. So I do not think there is any mystery behind aviation management, it is the same economics, it is the same accountancy, human resources, corporate governance, it is the same disciplinary approach that is applied when you are managing a company.
When will Aero’s maintenance facility begin to carry out checks up to C-level?
This is something that can happen in the next six months. I am looking at, say; in the next six months I want the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to give me approval to do C-check. I was pleasantly surprised when I joined Aero Contractors because of the capabilities of the Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO). Aero’s MRO is capable of doing up to C-check if given the chance. I believe they have the capacity, I believe they need a little bit of tooling and maybe a little bit of manpower to do it. But what I have seen in the capacity of the MRO of Aero, I am pleasantly surprised. And I did not know that an MRO capacity has been established this far in this country and the level of experience of the staff.
So I believe not two years, in the next six months, that is my belief. I am in discussion with a lot of maintenance organisations that the NCAA has given them an approval to do C-check outside the country. So why can’t I bring that maintenance and do it myself here? We have the capacity, we just need a little bit more tooling and we need a little bit of expertise to bring that. Yes, we have the shortfall of having a hangar that can take a full Boeing B737 in and close the doors, yes we have that limitation. But there is a way around it, we can hire a hangar, we can also see whether they are movable hangars.
We are talking to people to see whether they can come up with moveable hangars so that they can come and put a hangar for us temporarily while we are looking at Ccheck. But believe me, when we have another interview in the next three or six months I will let you know that we have the capacity of doing a C-check on a B737 aircraft right here in Nigeria.