Nigerian airlines cry out over N55bn spent on training pilots yearly

Upset by the frequency of oversea training for pilots and technical crews, airline operators have frowned at the policy compelling them to spend N55 billion annually for the programme.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has persistentlyrefused a call for a reduction in the number of such refresher courses undertaken by their technical crew, twice annually.

But airline operators said if they were to continue bearing such huge costs in training alone, it would have some negative impact on their survival as to remain afloat in the business.

According to one of the CEOs, “given other costs, which include high cost of aviation fuel and overhead costs and sustaining a number of pilots and co-pilots (the flight officer), as well as technical services of their fleet the training should be reduce to at most once per annum.”

For example, Dana Air has five aircraft in its fleet with 45 pilots, while Arik Air has 28 aircraft with over 250 pilots, each of these pilots travel overseas twice or thrice a year for simulator training.

An airline pays in dollars for these trainings; maintenance facility, pilots’ salaries, and their flight which is not less than $1500 business class and they pay for hotel accommodation for the period the pilot will spend on training.

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When a pilot returns, the airline pays for his license renewal, pays for his medical and other overhead.

If the pilot is an expatriate the airline pays him higher remuneration mostly in foreign currency and also allows him to go on leave for half of the year and also pays for his return ticket.

But NCAA spokesman Sam Arugbagbe said the training was not meant to serve as punishment on both the operators and the pilot, adding that it is in line with international standard for pilots and other technical crews to undergo training to update themselves with the changes in the system.

As at today, many airline are cancelling flights and others combining routes to accommodate backlog of stranded passenger, they said this was part of high cost of doing business in Nigeria.

 

 

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