Akin Oni is managing director, Bristow Helicopters (Nigeria), a company that has operated in West Africa for more than 50 years, primarily providing crew transport services to offshore drilling rigs and production platforms in the Niger Delta area.
Oni has been in the industry for nearly three decades; having started as an aircraft engineer and then went into the flight line.
He is good manager of men and resources and speaks very passionately about the industry and other issues in this interview with ken nwogbo.
Rebuilding the Aviation Industry from Your Perspective
Specifically, to the industry, things we could not do twenty years, we are beginning to do them now.
We all know the infrastructure challenge; people see it more in buildings, especially passenger terminals, but there are other infrastructural issues within the terminals.
Does the toilet work? Do I have to wait for hours for my bag to go through the process?
They are basic airport infrastructure. Recently, people expressed concern about the runway light.
Again, that is a challenge in being 10-15 years behind in developing the sector.
So, the progress should be to meet the next target and not for the challenge to catch up with the existing problems thereby dilapidating again.
In the context of our own industry which is more in the oil and gas, we have seen improvements made in airports’ comforts in Port Harcourt and in Lagos the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (Faan) is really driving the interest.
And we are not lagging behind in developing the Nigerian airspace.
Last year we spent amount in the region of $7 million developing facilities in Port Harcourt.
We bought a new hanger. And we plan to invest another $4 million in another hanger still in Port Harcourt.
That is because of the level of confidence we have. We are extending our ramp in Port Harcourt; and we are looking for more lands to extend our terminal.
So we are talking to the airport authorities in Port Harcourt to lease more lands. And we are looking forward to build a bigger terminal and bigger facilities to handle the level of work that we see.
There, I see a lot of opportunities.
Thinking Security while Expanding and Growing Market Share
Security remains a huge cost for us. The reason for that is we are scared because of the happenings up North.
And people believe somebody may attempt to do something down side.
So, if you look at our facility in Port Harcourt today, we have tightened up security; we have several baggage scanners and metal detectors.
We don’t have those things before. You don’t just buy two, you have to acquire four.
We had to enroll more people, and security checks at different points before one boards the aircraft.
So, substantial amount of money goes into security on monthly basis. We acknowledge that this is the situation in Nigeria today and the reality in the world generally.
Fortunately, when the late President made that decision (of granting Amnesty to militants), he made a huge change in Nigeria which has not been fully recognized out there.
Without that, today, we probably will not be operating in Port Harcourt neither could companies be in operation in Warri.
It would have been extremely difficult for anybody to get anything done.
Amnesty made a huge difference to Nigeria and it is a pity that nobody sat down to quantify the impact.
The programme made Port Harcourt become the vibrant place it used to be. Although I haven’t seen much in Warri but it will happen.
We certainly feel it; I can go to Port Harcourt, we can move around, previously we couldn’t. They were in the bus and went in-between the accommodation which was heavily fortified.
We have seen that change, but could that have happened without the amnesty, Impossible; you would have been receiving bullets in aircrafts by now.
Level of Nigerian Content Implementation
We want the industry to get to appreciable level of Nigerian content we needed. We are talking about ownership of the assets, what they are beginning to do is that they are building pipes in the industry, plants, but we can more even if it is assembling the Helicopter.
Building an Aircraft in Nigeria
The only way I could see that happen is in sort of joint venture. We are talking about 30 aircrafts to be bought, but we can use that start an assembling plant.
Even if it the very basic aircraft. That way, we set standard for aircraft to be used in Nigeria. If buying the 30 aircraft is true, I would insist that we use the platform to put something on ground here, because we learn in that process.
And the multiplier effects that the people are going to enjoy.
Capacity to Build Aircraft in Nigeria
We don’t have the people. Let’s be frank to ourselves. There are a lot of reports in aviation circles on building maintenance facilitate in Nigeria to work on large aircrafts, but we do not have the people to support that maintenance facility.
I said that because we invested here and with the number of people that we have trained. Every other investor knows how much we spend in this area.
We spend a lot at Zaria training pilots. This year it is $8 million on people going out to attend training and retraining; our pilots are attending course on helicopter taxiing and operation. So, that one side of it and if I look at the number of Nigeria who are involved on that, at the moment we have 18 Nigerians in Zaria undergoing training.
If we open a maintenance hangar today, the only way we can make that work is increasing experts. Yes, we have to start somewhere, but we have to bridge that gap. There have to be aggressive courses to ensure Nigerians are trained in that process.
Crop of Experts in the Era of Nigerian Airways
They are aged. Some who were lucky left the shores of the country, especially those below the age of 60.
By Implication, At a Time Nigeria Stopped Training Pilots
That is the fact. And everybody attests to that fact, because everybody stopped. I went through the training school in 1987.
If you look at the young pilots today, they could not learn from the expertise of the crop of experts then.
Thus, we effectively cut off a large chunk of the society of those who could do the job but cannot afford the cost of bottom-line training.
For us it costs about $250,000 to train a pilot and the Helicopter is more expensive.
And how many families can afford to take a chunk of $150,000 to train a child?
In Nigeria, we have sponsored people to get trained in Zaria and to other parts of the world.
But the then Nigerian Airways pilots, they were trained under the government’s scholarship programme.
How About Losing Pilots to Other Competition
I don’t mind losing expatriate pilots. It is painful. So, if I lose a Nigerian-trained pilot that is almost like a knife in my back. And we lost many to competition, but presently that has been taken care of.
We have seen change, because the grass is not exactly green on the other side. And we did some soul searching, better engaged the people.
I will say in the last six months, we haven’t lost any pilot to the competition. Though we haven’t put our finger on what the major cause is. It is not about pay, however something has changed. They now see the career.
Before now, when we are selecting people for training we make sure we select the right people; people who are in the field not because they need a job but because they love to fly. That is the next level of challenge.
Obviously, there are a lot of negativity about Nigerians and the educational system. Elsewhere, the education system still works because there some qualities you look out for. On failure rate, late year we had to send one person home. He couldn’t just fly, though he is good mentally.
General Safety in the Aviation Industry
Well, people are still skeptical about the system, but how do you measure safety. The fact that somebody had an incident or accident is not necessarily the entire system is not safe.
Nevertheless, when we visit an organization we look at their systems and the people managing the systems; their behaviours; are they jumping down the staircase? Or are they engaging in those things that point at safety cutting in on organization?
On the airline, we don’t have options yet, it is either Aero or Arik Air; others are just coming into business. It is a too wide measure. I think they have improved substantially, because everybody is working, even when I get to the airport I try to watch how things are been done.
Nigerian Pilots to Expatriates
Currently we are ending towards 40 to 50 per cent. We have 10 Nigeria nationals undergoing training in the US.
A batch will come in between May and July, while the next batch will be towards year end.
At the moment we have pruned down the number of people who are going next to 20. We hope to get 15 of that number.
First they will go to Zaria; after that stage they will move to the States where they will be trained on Helicopter services.
In the past we send them direct to the States, but now they go to Zaria they learn the basics.
We are about signing an agreement with an international aviation school where 10 others will be sent for training.
However, we are on track for our future targets to have about 90 per cent of the pilot population as Nigerians.
And with the retention that we have now coupled with a hope that nothing changes in the aviation world, I think we will be on that path.
The next challenge for us is as we are bringing these young people in, how many can the system absorb.
Financing
The financial challenge, it is quite huge. There is a capacity issue with the local banks to lend and there is the credit rate issue.
We are asking that the Nigerian airlines to compete in the global market space where they have to source at rates that are not up to 20 per cent; when a competitions like British Airways obtains credit at the rate of less than five per cent.
There is no way you can compete with that. And their access to funding is wide and open. That is the major challenge we have in Nigeria-financing an airline and aviation operations.
There is no way you will sustain business in aviation with 20 per cent interest rate. It is such that billionaires when they go into airline business they become millionaires.
