The immediate past General Secretary of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Mohammed Tukur, has made a chilling revelation of the century on Nigeria’s aviation industry, saying the country parades aircrafts with the shortest life span.
Tukur who explaining the reasons why domestic airlines collapse within the first 10 years of existence in Nigeria, identified wrong decisions, which include the deployment of long-haul jumbo jets on short-distance domestic routes. He further cautioned operators to limit the regular use of jumbo planes at lean times and use light and fuel-efficiency aircraft to boost operations.
He said that the B737 aircraft are also costly to maintain and that there is no way an operator could survive its maintenance programme, given the present economic situation.
A jumbo jet is a wide-body aircraft having a fuselage wide enough to accommodate two passenger aisles, also known as twin-aisle aircraft, with seven or more seats abreast.
He said even though Nigeria has one of the highest number of domestic airlines registered, it is one of those that parade airlines with the shortest life span in the world.
According to him, the only way domestic airlines will survive in the country was for the operators to acquire fuel–efficient aircraft, while “management of various airlines should stop living expensive lives with monies meant for operations of airlines.”
“There is need for airlines to change their aircraft types, they should get Jet aircraft and not these Boeing 737s. If they have these less fuel consuming aircraft, it will reduce their burdens.”
Tukur was a former Director of Operations at Chanchangi airline.
