To turn Air Peace’s recent success into a long term sustainable cash cow, Nigeria’s government needs to back it up with a robust aviation policy

Ayo Akinfe

[1] When you have a population of 200m, are located bang in the middle of your continent and your populace love travelling, you should have a one of the most lucrative aviation industries in the world. Indeed, Nigeria should be an African aviation hub

[2] Nigeria is a currently a mono-economy. When 95% of government revenue comes from crude oil sales, we have no choice other then to look for alternative sources of income if we do not want to perish as a people

[3] By my calculations, Nigeria needs to find an additional $30bn annually from alternative sources and for me, aviation has got to be one of the cash cows at the top of the list. Why? Because it is a readily available resource, there is a ready-made market available and we actually have the expertise to deliver on it

[4] In 2019, just before Covid, Ethiopian Airlines generated revenue of about $4bn. A well-run Nigerian national carrier with several different facets targeted at the diverse sectors of the market could easily double that. It simply has to be a goal we set ourselves

[5] Air Peace has stepped into the void created by the lack of a Nigerian national carrier. This its Lagos to London flights have created panic among the exploitative operators like BA and Virgin, forcing them to slash their fares in response

[6] To make sure things stay this way, we need laws pegging the cost of the London-Lagos route to that of the London-New York route. Both are the same distance, take the same amount of time and possess the same large volume of passengers

[7] One area where we can develop a unique niche in which we are the global market leader is the private jet sector. There are about 12 jets in the presidential fleet and most of our general overseers own at least one Gulfstream or Bombardier private jet. If we start off with a fleet of say 20 donated private jets and buy an existing couple of airlines with a combined capacity of say 100 planes, we are good to go

[8] Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, in the centre of the continent and the seventh most populated country on earth. We simply have to turn the nation into an aviation hub where everybody flies through when they want to travel to the African continent

[9] Over the long term, if Air Peace wants to compete with the likes of KLM, Lufthansa, Emirates, BA, Virgin, Air France, etc globally, it needs to become acquisitive. Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, Egypt Air, Ghanaian Airways, etc, all need to be in its sights

[10] A well run Nigerian airline could easily replace oil as our national cash cow. Figures do not lie so if you look at the revenue generated by major airlines prior to Covid-19, you will realise that our obsession with oil is nothing but a mental illness of sorts. See - Delta Airlines ($44.9bn), American Airlines ($44.5bn), Lufthansa ($42.3bn), Air France ($31.3bn). Our fixation with crude is just psychological