Alex Nwuba, president, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Nigeria, has called for cheaper means of funding aviation to ensure local operators remain globally competitive.

Mr Nwuba made the call on Wednesday at the maiden transport summit of JustAlive Communications Ltd. in Lagos.

The summit had the theme: “Nigeria’s Transport Infrastructure Innovation for a Sustainable Future”.

Mr Nwuba said that cheaper means of funding could only be provided by the government, but advised that the government must remove cost structures impeding growth.

“We must change the narrative that aviation is not unprofitable. It is highly profitable, but we must remove the cost structures that are inherent.

“I have always proposed the concept of a national leasing company; we need cheap airplanes,” he said.

He added that the government could get about 500 airplanes and make them available to local airlines at a four per cent interest rate.

“The first question you may ask is: what if the airline fails? There is no problem. You all know there is always somebody waiting by the side to start an airline.”

He regretted that Nigerian airlines borrowed money at 28 per cent to 34 per cent interest rate and it ate deep into their profits.

According to him, 47 per cent of airlines’ money goes into fuelling, increasing their operational cost.

The chief executive officer of Aero Contractors, Addo Sanusi, attributed the increasing air fares to policy inconsistency.

According to Mr Sanusi, who was represented by Femi Oluwafemi, head of sales at Aero, some airlines in Nigeria needed cash inflow to be able to provide better services and expand operations.

On the state of airports across the country, Mr Sanusi said that there was a need for improved infrastructure.

“We have talked about improvement at the international airports, but for the local airports, we can do a lot better in a lot of ways.

“What is the processing time that customers who enter any of our airports need to pass through?

“What kind of structure should we put in place to ensure that their experiences at the end of their flights are better?

“At the end of the day, it is not the airline staff who are totally responsible for a lot of things that are going on.

”We have a lot of gaps that, as a country, we need to block and we must do that together,” he said.

Remi Jibodu, the chief operating officer of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Ltd., operator of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two, said the terminal had been futuristic in its infrastructure.

Ms Jibodu emphasised the terminal’s innovations in security infrastructure, adding that airports must have robust security measures.

The summit was chaired by Fola Tinubu, chief executive officer, Primero Transport Services Ltd., and had in attendance stakeholders from the transport sector.

(NAN)