More airlines may shut-down soon —Aero Contractors’ CEO, Mahmood, says

The Chief Executive Officer of Aero Contractors, Abdullahi Mahmood, has warned that airlines mortality rate in Nigeria’s aviation industry will rise due to the current struggle with cost of operation.

Mahmood said government’s failure to intervene could spell doom for the aviation industry, cause increase of ticket price won’t be enough to save airline operators from shutting down.

His statement is on the heels of a report by Ripples Nigeria, that the airline operators have called off their planned suspension of operation, which was meant to begin on Monday, May 9.

The airline operators under the umbrella body of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), had complained of the rising aviation fuel, which skyrocketed to N700 per litre, from N190.

Following the decision to halt the suspension, Mahmood, during an interview with Arise TV on Monday, stated that if the airlines increase ticket price, and the air passengers don’t buy, it further worsens the situation.

Read also :Oil marketer accuses Air Peace, Arik, others of strongarming govt into aviation fuel subsidy

There are about 23 domestic airline companies in Nigeria, according to Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, and Mahmood believes the current situation will lead to them shutting down business completely one after the other, if the rising cost is not curbed.

Highlighting how the airlines have been coping under the current cost of operation, Mahmood said the operators entered into a spring alliance to prevent flight cancellations.

The spring alliance enables airlines to partner on flight schedule, which means if an airline’s passenger seats to Abuja is 50% filled, and another airline heading to that location has just 50% filled, both airlines can decide to merge passengers on one flight, to avoid cancellations.

Mahmood explained that planes not meeting passenger capacity doesn’t fund the cost of transiting the passengers, hence, the spring alliance, which the operators have been applying for a while.

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