Airline Chief Executive’s Perspective on Airlines,Aviation
| The Executives of LAAC in its ongoing courtesy visits to organisations on Monday, April 26, 2021, had a session with Capt. Ibrahim Mshelia, the Chairman, West Link Airlines. He spoke on numerous industry issues. Let us feel free to pick from any of the issues below. Thank you for cooperating with us thus far. Thank you. A lot has been said about the defunct Nigeria Airways and its collapse, some claimed the staff were responsible while others fingered the management in its demise, what in your view is responsible for its fall? First and foremost, I will want to talk on the structure of the airline before talking about the staff and management of the former national carrier. Nigeria Airways was not created for profitability the way it was run and the structure it had. The airline had an annual budget. How can the airline have an annual budget? The government pays for A,B, C and D checks and others. Because the airline had a budget, every government department then flew Nigeria Airways with warrant . In the military for instance, from Colonel and above, you flew first class and below, you get economy. For government establishment, from directorship level, you have first class and the rest is economy. And that was how the airline was run. It wasn’t meant for profit making. So, how do you survive? Also, the presidency didn’t have an aircraft designated to it. Whenever the presidency had a function, they will just pull out an aircraft immediately either for local or international operations. There was a time the scheduled flights of the airline will just be disrupted midway. That was how even the government contributed to the death of the airline. Now, how did staff and management contribute to its death? It is corruption; everybody was helping himself with the airline. First, everyone was employed based on quota system. You will begin to get it wrong when you apply the quota system in aviation. Quota system is unique in Nigeria for certain reasons, but we should begin to separate what quota system will be applicable in what. Only the best should be taken. In the military, I learnt you cannot just employ anybody to join the military; they share it according to state. The military insists that only the best from each state would be taken, but in public sector, it is the one with a godfather that gets the job. The management of the airline would employed mediocre in the places they should not be, give people positions above their level and qualifications, thereby demoralising the other staff who are better qualified than you. Also, there were cases in which Stations Managers were sacked or recalled for not doing the biddings of some people in the government especially when they wanted their non-revenue luggage to be given priority above revenue luggage of passengers. Was quota system part of the reasons the airline died? Quota system is killing the Nigerian system up till now. I am not against quota system in certain things so that we will have equally presentation, but there are some certain things that will require technical qualifications. Dexterity is a gift from God. Those who put the quota system in place looked at the advantages and disadvantages of it and we are supposed to manage and patch it. It had a good intention, but when we start to play politics with it, then, it will continue to work against us. What is your view about the call for airline merger in Nigeria? I think we are joking; it is not a culture like Nigeria that airlines will merge. We will never be able to merge because everybody comes with his own model and we will never agree on models. For instance, look at the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) today; we don’t have a body as far as I am concern because some people think their ideas should be superior to others. In a group, you don’t think like that, you have to convince people to marry your idea. If an airline is run professionally, first it must have the dream of the founding fathers. What is the dream of the founding fathers because it plays a big role in the merger plans? Like the dreams had is that when I retire, I want to have a one per cent shares of in my airline. My dream is that even though I founded it, but I want my great grandchildren to have shares in it. However, the issue about merger in Nigeria is that people want to have ownership and die with it without transferring it to expatriate that can handle it. We blame a lot of things for the death of airlines in Nigeria, which are probably not the case for the death of airlines. The most important of them all is the will of the government to have a robust aviation industry. That is not there. If government is actually interested in developing aviation, it will be there in its policies. There will be deliberate policies to grow the industry and this General Aviation will be the solution to it. That is why for me, I advocate for complete autonomy of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) under the current administration. This will do a lot of good for the industry and some of these challenges will be checkmated. There is claim by some charter operators that some private jet owners are converting their jets into hire and reward, how true is this? I have been into chartered flights before I got the Air Operators’ Certificate (AOC) for the West Link Airlines. I was managing a company before I set up my own. Before then, I had always been in the advocacy of doing the right thing and that is why I decided to set up my own airline. To tell you whether it is true or not, I can tell you that it is true because as a certified operator, I know most of the passengers who are regular, but there was a time some of them complained to me that I charge more, but they had got it cheaper. One of them told me the name of the airline, but I told him that I don’t know which certified airline will change you less than what I am charging you. If the airline is charging lesser, maybe it is not going to the market to buy the same fish I am selling. He might be buying the fish free and cooking the same pepper soup for you. The fact is government is should be more worried because it is losing a lot of revenues. I pay the 5 per cent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC), even if I don’t have the cash with me, I owe it and I must pay it and I can’t jump it. But, those that are doing these sharp practices are not captured in the NCAA data. So, NCAA cannot go after them. Then, I think the Department of State Security (DSS) should have intervened because this was purely economy sabotage, for them to remain for this long, even when the former Director-General of NCAA suspended some of them. That is why I felt that if the Director-General of NCAA has a full autonomy, then he would do his job without looking at the body language of the minister. Even, the passengers are also endangering themselves by flying private jets because no insurance would want to compensate the victims when accident occurs. The NCAA should ask the DSS to check thier operations. I can tell you that within three to four weeks, the truth will be known. What business do you operate when fly three or four times in a day?Yet the airline will claim it is flying private. How the law suit instituted against the leadership of AON by some of its aggrieved members? Well, I led the court case and there was no election. There was a selection because on February 5, 2020, we had a meeting. That meeting was to discuss our Annual General Meeting (AGM) and handover to the next elected executives. The tenure of the executives in power then had expired and the then chairman wanted us to quickly tidy up the constitution, review, adopt it and conduct elections. But, someone moved that we extend his tenure by another three weeks, which I seconded. So, the man was reinstalled on trust for that date to carry us through constitutional review AGM and election within three weeks. When the elections took place in September, what had transpired between February 5 and September is a story for another day, but there have been rigmaroles. They fixed dates, it wouldn’t work and for those who paid or who didn’t pay, they needed to pay. I can tell you categorically that everybody was guilty of not paying; if you are going to measure based on our constitution, then you must have paid your dues and if you don’t pay in three consecutive times then, you are thrown out. In fact you have to prove that someone refused to pay by showing demand notice for payment. By the time they said we should all pay up, some of the members said they were not paying because for six years, we have not had audited account. That was the position of some members and at that point, only those who wanted to be elected were encouraged to pay because the constitution was also clear, ‘to stand for election to contest elections or to vote you must be a financial member. I participated and submitted some corrections I wished to be adopted within seven days. We all did that but that constitution was not sent to us. The minute of that meeting was not sent to us. As I speak to you, there is no proper adoption of that minute. It was never sent, we kept dragging and nothing happened until they decided to create a platform, for paid up members. I was added because I have already paid up. So, they had no choice, but to add me and I said to them, you cannot select yourselves out of an association under the guise of paid up and not paid up members, especially for the upcoming AGM as every member is entitled to know. So, whatever they sent on that platform, I sent to the main platform. So, I was forcefully removed because of that. That is to tell you the impunity started for a long time. Some people in AON have reduced it to personal property and it started with the immediate past chairman of the body. He enjoyed using it to introduce himself to people like he had no status before then. Now, on that day, instead of AON to have a hall for the AGM and allow people who are paid up to come in, they put policemen on the entrance and gave an instruction that only those who have paid up should be allowed to come. One of the members who tried to attend said when he insisted on going in, a policeman was going for his gun. So, he turned around and left. This is how 15 people elected themselves into various offices out of 35 members. So how did that election hold? 15 people cannot adopt a constitution for 35 people. As far as I am concerned, I wanted to right the wrong as I am a law abiding citizen and as a law abiding citizen, I spoke to a few of my colleagues who felt that the same way I feel and they agreed to approach the court. The case is still in court and we have had two sessions in court already, but the ongoing strike in the court has slowed us down a bit. Some members of AON said they are yet to receive from the palliative, have you received yours? West Link Airlines has not received any form of palliative from the government till date. I submitted everything required. I think for me as an individual not as West Link, they are just trying to punish those who stick to the law. If you are in this country you stick to the law, you’re called a radical or a rebel. So, we have turned our culture to teach our children that doing bad thing is good. What can you say about Sirika’s six point agenda, especially as they relate to establishment of MRO and Aircraft Leasing company? In that our panel that was set up, I advised the Federal Government to set up leasing company; that will help and strengthen the airlines here. We don’t have to be looking for dollars to pay our lease. We operate in naira, we pay in naira. We recommended that N500 billion should be set aside by government in 2013, as a leasing company for local operators to access and bring their planes in. The lessor is supposed to be Nigerian leasing company, so we will be paying here; all the income will be domiciled here and it will help to strengthen our naira. It will be only parts and training that we maybe worrying about. If we intensify our things properly, we can even have our trainings reduced to Nigeria as we have all the airplanes simulators here. Kenya has Life Safety there. It is because we have not put our acts together that is why all these things are all over the place. It should be in Nigeria because that is where the market is. Sometimes, you wonder why. For example, I have been trying to get land for my Flying School here in Nigeria. Since five years I have applied, I don’t have the land. So, what do I do? I will be compelled to go back to Ghana. And that is exactly the option I am looking at now. I went through Phase 3, submitted all the manuals. It is remaining to get a place and prepare for the demonstration, I have not been able to get that. The NCAA cannot do anything, it is neither their fault nor mine. It is the fault of the policy, we don’t want to grow our own things. That is why these deliberate policies are in place. For example, the government has given us waivers on customs duties and we are still paying duties. Who is then collecting the duties we are paying now. I have the evidence that we are paying. Meanwhile, government has approved these things since, but we are still paying. Honestly speaking, government should begin to accept advice from genuine professionals. |
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