Med-View Airline has advised the Federal Government to come out early with its intervention plans for airlines to sustain the safety which has been achieved in the industry in the past few years.
Its Managing Director, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, gave the advice while speaking with aviation correspondents in Lagos on Tuesday.
Bankole said government’s palliatives for operating airlines was necessary following the negative impact the COVID-19 pandemic had had on the country’s aviation industry especially the airline sub-sector.
He regretted that the aviation industry was the worst hit by the pandemic, which had hammered the global economies.
Bankole noted that for success to continue to be recorded in the sector, government needed to give operators palliatives to mitigate the effect of the losses on operations of the airlines.
He explained that most operators found it difficult to render welfare obligations to their staff, saying that most were struggling to ensure regular payment of salaries to their workers.
Bankole further called on the government to reopen the airspace for flight operations in the next few weeks, starting with domestic flights.
The airline chief bemoaned that the grounding of aircraft in almost two months would have led to Airworthiness Directives (ADs) on them, while corrosion would have increased due to lack of use.
He said: “When you fly 200 hours, there are certain checks you do. When you increase that to 400 hours, there are certain checks you need to do again.
“Also, when you don’t fly again, you still need to carry out some checks on your aircraft because corrosion will set in and some of the pilots’ licences would have expired by now.
“Aviation industry in general demands for a window. You can see the effect the current pandemic has had on aviation industry globally.
“The virus, which started from China, spread to the world and disrupted activities within a few months.
“The airport environment too has changed, while social distancing directive must be complied with. Safety of the frontline workers is very important.”
Bankole said the industry needed palliatives to bring life back to it, saying that 90 per cent of workers were at home now.
He said the government should think very critically about the issues of palliatives to the sector as the industry was dying.
The airline chief said the sincerity of what operators were saying was that the government should see its palliatives as a means of life-saving, fastest means of bringing back economy to life and improve the lives of everybody.
He lamented that the recent fall of naira against major currencies, especially the dollar would have adverse effect on operators, saying that with the intervention of the government, such effect might be minimised.
Bankole further advocated more investments in Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) to safe cost for the operators in the country.
He urged the government to encourage private maintenance companies in the country like Aero Contractors.
“In the light of all these, we have been shouting of basic things like provision of MRO. Local MRO companies like Aero should now be encouraged with a little investment.
“This will save operators a lot of embarrassment. Instead of carrying our aircraft to outside the country for maintenance and doing it in dollars, we can easily do such here in Nigeria,” he said.
On the 2020 Annual Hajj to Saudi Arabia, Bankole said that Med-View would be willing to participate in the event but agreed that a lot of work still needed to be done to ensure a safe clime for participants.
