Stakeholders: Regional Airline Will Improve Connectivity in Underserved States

Chinedu Eze

Aviation stakeholders have commended the move made by states in the North East region of Nigeria to establish a joint regional airline, which according to them, will improve connectivity, ensure steady flight operations, boost economic activities and create jobs.

The North East region of Nigeria comprises of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states.

Last week, the six North East states announced they were pooling N30 billion (N5 billion each) to establish a regional airline to be known as North East Shuttle to improve connectivity, reduce reliance on other carriers and boost regional trade.

The states said they would start off by acquiring two aircraft to connect the state capitals of the region to Abuja and Lagos, noting that commercial airlines that operate destinations in the region tend to pull out due to security concerns.

The Managing Director/CEO of Aero Contractors, Captain Ado Sanusi, told THISDAY in an exclusive interview of the implication of establishing regional airline in Nigeria.

According to him, what Nigeria is going through today is close to what US went through in the 1950s and early 60s, when well-known airlines were not providing adequate flight services to some states and regions, prompting those states and regions to acquire aircraft from manufacturers and gave them to professionals to run for them.

A US-based the publication, ‘Catch Our Style: California Regional Airlines 1950-1980’, stated: “While the United States is noted for having a privately-owned aviation industry, regional, state, and federal entities played a crucial role in establishing, regulating, and subsidising airlines in the 1950s and 1960s. These airlines, often called “local service carriers” or “regional carriers,” were fostered to connect smaller communities to the national network, and many were later absorbed into the private sector through mergers and deregulation.”

Sanusi, however, observed that while what happened in the US was sincere with good intensions, one cannot say the same with similar plan in Nigeria because more often, what government showcases to the public may be different from its intentions. This means that the desired result of establishing a regional airline in North East may not be realised.

The Aero Contractors boss also asserted that there was no justification for states that have not met the critical needs of its people, like the provision of healthcare, education and the provision of basic infrastructure, to be investing in airline business, emphasising that the major objective of government is to improve the welfare of the governed.

He also stressed that no state should run an airline because in the long run the state may not effectively manage such airline but the most realistic thing to do is to acquire aircraft and hand them over to professionals to run under a lease agreement. And part of the agreement is that the airline must maximally utilise the aircraft operating your desired routes in other to provide service to those routes.

He acknowledged that the North East region is really under served in terms of flight service, adding that the state governments need to open up the area, confirming that due to insecurity fears, airlines do not operate to those destinations in the North East for long before they pull out.

“Yes, I agree that they need to open up the region because you hardly can find airlines operating there for a long time. People have to travel for commerce. But they can put resources together, buy aircraft and give them to somebody that can run it for them and pay for leasing them,” he said.

Looking at the N30 billion the six states already earmarked for the project, Sanusi said that the money should be around $20 million which definitely would not buy a new aircraft like Boeing B737 MAX, but might buy the vintage Boeing B737-700 of about 15 years.

“It can buy some Embraer E145 but that will not be the right aircraft to operate the routes they want. It can also buy about two Bombardier, CRJ 900, but they cannot start an airline with two aircraft,” he said.

Also speaking in the same vein, the President of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), Yinka Folami, commended the intention of the states in the region to establish such airline, noting that the region is underserved so they need an airline that could be operating the routes, but warned that establishing an airline is very technical and could be tricky trying to manage a commercial airline, adding that there is really the need to have airline or airlines servicing the routes to improve traffic.

Reacting to the establishment of the regional airline, the Managing Director/CEO of 7 Star Global Hangar Nigeria Limited, Isaac Balami, told THISDAY that what the stated in the region want to do was very good because it would help to develop the region, noting that it would be difficult for other airlines to come and develop the region.

He said the establishment of an airline in the region was long overdue because it would glavanise the economies of the member states, meet the need of the people to travel by air, which is the fasted way to move from place to place to meet up with their business and also for government officials to travel from their various states to Abuja.

Beyond connecting the region with Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria’s most important cities, there are local connectivity demands like from Maiduguri to Yola, from Gombe to Taraba and others.

“It is long overdue because no airline from outside the region will be able to do from Maiduguri to Taraba or from Maiduguri to Gombe. Nobody will be developing your own for you,” he said.

Balami said that what the new airline would need was to have the right aircraft on the routes and maximise the passenger demand, noting that the airline could fairly operate with four to six aircraft in its fleet, adding that some of the states have existing aircraft but now the six states want to establish an airline they could go for more modern fleet.

“Getting the right equipment is important. You look at you passenger throughput and decide on the aircraft type to use. The right aircraft could range from Beechcraft 1900D to Bombardier Q400 Dash 8. These are aircraft that have the right seat number that can meet the number of passengers in some of the routes, instead of putting Boeing 737 there, which is not good for the route because such aircraft is meant for two, three, four hours flight. If you use the wrong equipment you shorten the life span of the aircraft. In Nigeria, average airline life span is 10 years and it will go for major overhaul. So, the region should choose the right equipment,” he said.

Balami, who is aircraft engineer, comes from the North East region and operates MRO facility in Lagos. Nigeria. He said he has supported the region in actualising its planned project and he was also willing to support their efforts again.

The promoters of the project said that the airline, when established, would provide stable, locally-owned air transport system, which is open the region and which will attract investment.

THISDAY learnt that the project is building on the initiatives started in 2020 to solve the problem of inconsistent airline services in the area.