Fresh indications have emerged revealing that some domestic airlines’ operators may close up shop due to inability to access forex required to either return or take their aircraft outside the country for checks.
It was learnt that the country’s 12 scheduled airlines with different range of airplanes from Boeing 737 series, Airbus A320-300, A220-300, ATR, Embraer CRJ, Embraer E2, Embraer ERJ-145, Dash 8 to MD 83, among others, had suffered severe fleet depletion, leading to reduction in capacity.
It was also gathered that the instability in exchange rate was affecting the cost of aircraft spare parts, forcing operators to constantly adjust airfares.
A senior member of Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, and the Chief Executive Officer of Top Brass Aviation Limited, Captain Roland Iyayi, lamented the paucity of rex, calling for an urgent fix.
He said: “I know of a domestic carrier that has as many as 13 aircraft stuck at various maintenance facilities worldwide. The same operator, in the course of putting in bid for forex, has domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, $14 million worth of naira. A year and half on, he is yet to receive the dollars.
“They have a situation where, because of this paucity or unavailability of forex, they are stuck with having about 30 per cent of their operational fleet stuck with maintenance facilities worldwide.
‘’That has depleted their fleet availability and schedule reliability. So, when you hear a lot of domestic airlines cancelling and delaying, it is not completely unconnected with the fact that they have not had FX available to be able to recover their airplanes to optimize operations.
“It is not sustainable. That is the reason a fleet of about 30 aircraft is now down to 21. Some airlines with about 10 airplanes are now down to four. What that translates to ultimately is an increase in fares because if there is no capacity and demand is higher, fares will increase. The lack of forex is a major factor in how domestic airlines fare.
“Right now, I think government should declare a state of emergency in aviation. If we continue at this rate, the fleet size of the domestic market may be reduced to as low as between 35 and 50 per cent within the next three months, meaning airfares will increase.”
