Kenneth Ehigiator
29 March 2004
Ikeja — THE National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) has cautioned South African Airways (SAA) against investing in the proposed new national carrier, the Nigerian Eagle Airlines (NEA), saying the proposed airline was already heading for the rocks even before take-off.
President of the association, Capt. Ufot Ekong, who sounded the warning at last weekend's church service to commemorate the sacking of 47 Nigeria Airways pilots 20 years ago, disclosed that NAAPE had already written SAA to warn them against the dangers of investing in the NEA when all labour issues involved in the liquidation of Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) had not been resolved by the Nigerian government.
According to him, the federal government was still owing workers and pensioners of the liquidated Nigeria Airways backlog of salary and pension arrears running into billions of naira.
He said until the labour issues and those of Nigeria Airways debts were resolved, any airline coming to invest in the proposed national carrier as strategic investor was doing so at its own peril.
Capt. Ekong, who lamented the Nigerian government's invitation of a foreign airline to set up its own, said the sacking of 47 Nigeria Airways pilot by the Buhari-Idiagbon administration marked the beginning of the collapse of the airline. "It was the beginning of the exodus of pilots from Nigeria Airways to the private sector. No sooner had the pilots been sacked than they sold away seven airplanes of F-27 series, next they sold eight F-28 airplanes, two of Boeing 727 and two of Boeing 707 airplanes and NAL went down the line to the limbo.
"So, it's been a failure for the airline since the 47 pilots were disengaged from service," said Capt. Ekong noted that no airline anywhere in the world could survive such exodus of its pilots.
He, however, expressed delight that the sacked pilots now constituted the engine of the country's aviation sector, with most of them now running their own airlines.
He accused the federal government of not creating the necessary environment for domestic airline operators, arguing that had government played its role properly, the sector would have grown beyond the level it is currently.
He said: "Ever since we dismissed those 47 pilots, ever since they got into the private sector, things have not been the same, as there had been expansion, but government has not been able to merge this expansion with commensurate efforts at developing the aviation sector.
"Today, we have an industry that is in disarray; we do not have appropriate air services and navigational management, so the private sector is marching on because of these pilots that went there."
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