2 weeks Ago By Olusegun Koiki
LAGOS – The Federal Government has vowed to curb mortality rate among the country’s airlines, assuring that it would always protect the domestic operators to remain in business. The government also said that the collapse of over 100 Nigerian airlines in the last 40 years was unacceptable. Mr.
Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, stated this over the weekend during the 10th year anniversary celebration of Air Peace in Lagos. Keyamo, who expressed sadness over the death of the airlines, declared that he was more associated with domestic airlines than the foreign carriers. He insisted that the Federal Government had a responsibility to protect the domestic carriers to ensure their survivability amidst the challenging operating difficulties.
Some of the major Nigerian airlines that have closed shop in the last 40 years include Okada, Bellview, ADC, Sosoliso, Fresh Air, Hak Air, Albarka, EAS, NICON, Virgin Nigeria, First Nation, IRS, Space World and Afrijet. Others are Nigeria Airways Limited, Harco, Harka, Slok Air, Argonaut Airlines, Comet Airlines, Fassey Royal Limited, GAS Airlines, Wind Air, Capital Airline, Skyline, Rite Time Aviation, Freedom, Dasab, Savanna, Triax, Chrome, Skypower Express, Premium Air Shuttle, Savannah, Merchant Express, Afrijet, Selcon Airline, Chanchangi Airlines and others. The minister however expressed delight with Air Peace for remaining in business in the last decade despite the myriad of challenges confronting operations in the industry.
He said: “I am excited to be here for two reasons. The first is Air Peace has survived for 10 years as it keeps striving and going higher and higher. It is not on a decline.
It is actually on the rise. “If you look at the history of airlines in Nigeria, it is difficult for any of them to survive more than 10 years and still remain in business. We have a history of high mortality of airlines, more than 100 airlines in the last 40 years or so.
“So, you ask yourself why they died. When I came to the office, I looked at this thing and I said there must be something that is responsible for this high mortality rate of airlines. And then here you have Air Peace, after 10 years still looking fine, still looking healthy and actually on the rise rather than on decline.
“The second reason is that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Air Peace is still alive. That is the second reason to celebrate because you (Allen Onyema) is alive today to see the progress of this great initiative. We had an example of someone who had an Air Operator Certificate (AOC), he got the aircraft in but they did not start operation before he died.
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