Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) says, it is working with the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS to establish an Aviation Desk to train its personnel on aviation matters for better understanding of the sector.
Vice President, AON, Mr. Allen Onyema who disclosed this at a forum in Lagos said, this would enable Customs to understand the importance of air travel and the urgency to clear aircraft spares, especially when under AOG (aircraft on ground).
According to him, for easy clearance of aircraft spares and other related imports by the Nigeria Customs Service, one of its members Mr. Roland Iyayi spearheaded a move that the body work with customs to have an aviation desk and this had received the nod of the leadership of Customs.
According to him, in other climes, once any aircraft spare part is brought in under AOG, Customs would allow it to be cleared immediately and later the airline would deal with the processes.
“This is important because currently many of the officials do not understand how aviation works, like what is AOG. So, an airline’s aircraft spare parts might come and it might remain there for three weeks because they do not understand the urgency of clearing it so that the aircraft would return to work”.
Reiterating the challenges faced by domestic airlines, the AON Vice President said, not having transit facility at any of the nation’s major airports is a hindrance to intra-regional connectivity and even international operations.
Ideally, in passenger movement, airlines on international service can use airport with transit facility as hub where passengers are brought together and taken to other destinations, but Nigeria does not have such facility at any of its airports.
On aircraft maintenance facility, Mr. Onyema disclosed that, Nigerian carriers lose millions of money in dollars maintaining their aircraft overseas because Nigeria does not have major Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in the country.
“Even to ferry those planes abroad is a lot of money already. So, the Nigerian airlines is destined to fail from the beginning. You are dead on arrival because there are so many things against you. You don’t have MROs that could take care of maintenance. That should have been a major priority government should have facilitated”.
He called on the Federal Government to provide the enabling environment for investors in MRO to build the facility in Nigeria.