Why FG must save indigenous airlines –Ore

To avoid a situation where Nigerian airlines continually fold up and go into extinction, the Federal Government must urgently intervene.
This was the suggestion of aviation veteran, Capt. Dele Ore while reacting to the high mortality rate of Nigerian airlines even as he called for review of the National Civil Aviation Policy.

In a chat with Daily Trust, Ore lamented that only a handful of Nigerian airlines are currently in existence out of many others which existed a decade ago.
A Daily Trust report Tuesday said more than 50 airlines had existed in Nigeria from independence in 1960 while many of them have become extinct.
The indigenous airlines still operating are about 10, including Overland Airways and Skypower Express Airline, a charter and passenger airline operating since 1986. The popular ones are Arik, Med-View Airlines, Dana Air, Air Peace, Azma, Kabo, Max Air, FirstNation. Aero Contractors recently suspended operations.
Ore, a one-time Director of Flight Operations of the defunct Nigerian Airways, said the government should urgently intervene to save the existing airlines for going the way of the extinct ones.
According to him, the government should create an enabling environment for the airlines, come up with a Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) policy and address the foreign exchange challenge facing the airlines.
Besides, there is the need for improvement in manpower requirements of the aviation industry, advocating that the Federal, states and local governments should collaborate to achieve the manpower needs of the industry, he said.
“Government should ensure that they don’t give preference to foreign airlines at the expense of our local airlines. We need to support them to grow”, he said.
On the part of the operators, the expert said the airlines must collaborate with one another and imbibe the culture of code-sharing.