Arik Air appeals to FG over protection for Nigerian carriers

Chairman of major Nigerian airline, Arik Air, Sir Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide, has appealed to the Federal Government to provide an enabling framework which seeks to give protection to indigenous carriers in the country as obtained in other climes.

According to the airline chief, the numerous hurdles placed by aviation authorities in the country before indigenous operators served to cripple the capacity of local operators against their international competitions who also operate from the country.

Further pointing to what he termed ‘malaise in the aviation industry in Nigeria’, Arumemi-Ikhide said the situation was hampering the growth of the sector in the long run, even as he urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ‘carry out forensic audit on the industry in order to cure the ills plaguing it.’

Sir Arumemi-Ikhide, who was speaking at Wednesday’s breakfast meeting of the Aviation Round Table (ART) in Lagos, also used the platform to dismiss assumptions that Nigeria airlines do not have the financial capacity to carry out transatlantic operations into Asia, Europe and America.

“There is need for President Muhammadu Buhari to carry out a forensic audit of the ministry to look into the dubious and corrupt practices perpetuated at different stages in the sector by putting numerous hurdles before Nigerian airlines that indicated interest to operate international destinations while at the same time frequencies were given to foreign carriers to operate freely into Nigerian airports.

“Past ministers in the ministry were ill-advised by officials who rather prefer to gain from the lopsided arrangement they entered into rather than protect Nigeria carriers. At various times the local airlines had been denied entry into countries it applied to fly into while they grant entry permissions into Nigeria to airlines from countries that refused same to Nigeria airlines,” the Arik Air chief stressed.

Arumemi-Ikhide, who was making a rare appearance at an industry forum, further alleged that officials of the Ministry of Aviation should be held liable for the rot that has characterized the Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASA) between Nigeria and other countries.

Continuing, Arumemi-Ikhide  decried the recent publication in national newspapers of the name of debtor airlines by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), saying the move was a disservice to local airlines and called for its reversal.

On the issue of a national carrier, Arumemi-Ikhide stated that the Arik Air was not afraid of government setting up a national carrier further denying allegations that Arik Air owed Nigerian banks any debt.

He also revealed that Arik Air has secured $1 billion loan to upgrade its operation and had also concluded arrangement to acquire 26 new aircraft between now and May 2017.

The Arik Air chairman who accused the Presidency of poaching four pilots from Arik Air, which the airline had spent millions of naira to train, and are now in the Presidential Fleet, however, announced Arik Air would soon be quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).