Life was never easy in the airline business and there were two suspensions of business last Sunday night,8th September, the first permanent and the other stated to be for just a year ,to underline this harsh reality.
First to go was BMi Baby. This was a good quality operation but IAG/BA , having obtained BMi from Lufthansa ,did not want to continue with Baby. Apart from the question of profitability, its provincially based network just wasn't the sort of thing IAG/BA is interested in. There was little chance of a buyer. Why would any other airline bother to take on the liabilities and staff and complications under transfer of undertakings legislation rather than just sit back and wait to cherrypick any of the routes they wanted? The airline came to a dignified and thoroughly professional end with an ordely shutdown at the end of the day's normal operation.
Fortunately the UK is a dynamic market and the empty holes BMi Baby leaves will be plugged by others who can and make money. If profitability is impossible in some, BMi should have abandoned them in the first place. The staff can move on with pride and should be readily employable by those who move in to fill the gaps.
Next down was Air Nigeria, a very different case in a very different part of the world. It had started life as Virgin Nigeria ,which aimed to be a high quality airline following the collapse of the long ailing Nigeria Airways . This itself was the post independence Nigerian succesor to the potentially much more successful multinational West African Airways which broke up after Ghana's defection in 1958. Virgin Nigeria started life with very high hopes of breaking new ground. Unfortunately all sorts of factors including hostile manoeuvres on the ground did a lot to break its successor,- at least for the time being.
On Sunday night, just as BMi Baby was shutting down engines for the last time, Air Nigeria suspended business for the time being allegedly partly because it could no longer carry the interest payments on $200 million of accumulated debt. Its management says that the cessation of flying is temporary and it should be seen as entering a period in hospital while it is mended. Let's hope that MRSA doesn't get to it. Its struggle for survival has been difficult. Many of the original promises , including being able to operate domestic services out one wing of of Lagos's international terminal , have not materialised or been withdrawn at short notice. It has not managed to develop the right contacts in the new government and it has had a running battle with former Nigeria Airways staff who have seen it as a successor company and therefore obliged to employ them. All sorts of feet seem to have been stuck out to trip them up.
With Nigeria's mountain of petrodollars, Lagos should be the aviation hub of West Africa . It isn't and shows no sign of becoming one and thanks to visa problems and a myriad of operational and facilitation logs across the road. Rightly or wrongly, the very name Lagos airport strikes trepidation into many potential passengers , particularly non Nigerian Africans. Images of hassle abound. People go there if they have to. If not they don't. Ghana and Accra are the main beneficiaries. The Nigerian Government could change all this by getting a proper grip on all aspects of civil aviation and instilling discipline and order into everything people and airlines experience at Lagos airport .Unfortunately it hasn't yet done so and right across the aviation scene there are reports of conflicting interests, diversions of funds, and general lack of will . All this produces a messy shambles. Those Nigerians and foreigners,who do operate successfully to, from and within Nigeria deserve a great deal of credit. The tragedy is it could all easily be so different and so much better.
Virgin Nigeria's problems seemed to start almost as soon as it was born. This was partly as result of a change of government and the airline's failure to embed itself with the new one in depth and breadth . It appeared to lose much of its top level political support and protection. Its mainly foreign top management seldom looked comfortable and settled in the Nigerian environment and this created its own negative resonances locally. The airline really needed a big bang start with a high quality reliable interconnecting domestic, regional and long haul hub at Lagos . It also needed very deep pockets over a long initial period. Starting with just six ex EasyJet 737-300s ,-delivered over time, not all pre startup,-as its regional fleet and an A340-300 or two operating longer hauls it didn't achieve a critical mass quickly enough. Add to that the lack of a unified domestic/international terminal and transfer facility at Lagos plus transit visa requirements or hassles and it faced an enormous and perhaps eventually always unwinnable battle. The demise of its successor company unfortunately comes as no surprise and the role of "national carrier" is now passed to Arik Air. The best thing the government can do is to give it full support and protection from anything or anybody in the way of success but otherwise to keep out of it in all other respects.
First to go was BMi Baby. This was a good quality operation but IAG/BA , having obtained BMi from Lufthansa ,did not want to continue with Baby. Apart from the question of profitability, its provincially based network just wasn't the sort of thing IAG/BA is interested in. There was little chance of a buyer. Why would any other airline bother to take on the liabilities and staff and complications under transfer of undertakings legislation rather than just sit back and wait to cherrypick any of the routes they wanted? The airline came to a dignified and thoroughly professional end with an ordely shutdown at the end of the day's normal operation.
Fortunately the UK is a dynamic market and the empty holes BMi Baby leaves will be plugged by others who can and make money. If profitability is impossible in some, BMi should have abandoned them in the first place. The staff can move on with pride and should be readily employable by those who move in to fill the gaps.
Next down was Air Nigeria, a very different case in a very different part of the world. It had started life as Virgin Nigeria ,which aimed to be a high quality airline following the collapse of the long ailing Nigeria Airways . This itself was the post independence Nigerian succesor to the potentially much more successful multinational West African Airways which broke up after Ghana's defection in 1958. Virgin Nigeria started life with very high hopes of breaking new ground. Unfortunately all sorts of factors including hostile manoeuvres on the ground did a lot to break its successor,- at least for the time being.
On Sunday night, just as BMi Baby was shutting down engines for the last time, Air Nigeria suspended business for the time being allegedly partly because it could no longer carry the interest payments on $200 million of accumulated debt. Its management says that the cessation of flying is temporary and it should be seen as entering a period in hospital while it is mended. Let's hope that MRSA doesn't get to it. Its struggle for survival has been difficult. Many of the original promises , including being able to operate domestic services out one wing of of Lagos's international terminal , have not materialised or been withdrawn at short notice. It has not managed to develop the right contacts in the new government and it has had a running battle with former Nigeria Airways staff who have seen it as a successor company and therefore obliged to employ them. All sorts of feet seem to have been stuck out to trip them up.
With Nigeria's mountain of petrodollars, Lagos should be the aviation hub of West Africa . It isn't and shows no sign of becoming one and thanks to visa problems and a myriad of operational and facilitation logs across the road. Rightly or wrongly, the very name Lagos airport strikes trepidation into many potential passengers , particularly non Nigerian Africans. Images of hassle abound. People go there if they have to. If not they don't. Ghana and Accra are the main beneficiaries. The Nigerian Government could change all this by getting a proper grip on all aspects of civil aviation and instilling discipline and order into everything people and airlines experience at Lagos airport .Unfortunately it hasn't yet done so and right across the aviation scene there are reports of conflicting interests, diversions of funds, and general lack of will . All this produces a messy shambles. Those Nigerians and foreigners,who do operate successfully to, from and within Nigeria deserve a great deal of credit. The tragedy is it could all easily be so different and so much better.
Virgin Nigeria's problems seemed to start almost as soon as it was born. This was partly as result of a change of government and the airline's failure to embed itself with the new one in depth and breadth . It appeared to lose much of its top level political support and protection. Its mainly foreign top management seldom looked comfortable and settled in the Nigerian environment and this created its own negative resonances locally. The airline really needed a big bang start with a high quality reliable interconnecting domestic, regional and long haul hub at Lagos . It also needed very deep pockets over a long initial period. Starting with just six ex EasyJet 737-300s ,-delivered over time, not all pre startup,-as its regional fleet and an A340-300 or two operating longer hauls it didn't achieve a critical mass quickly enough. Add to that the lack of a unified domestic/international terminal and transfer facility at Lagos plus transit visa requirements or hassles and it faced an enormous and perhaps eventually always unwinnable battle. The demise of its successor company unfortunately comes as no surprise and the role of "national carrier" is now passed to Arik Air. The best thing the government can do is to give it full support and protection from anything or anybody in the way of success but otherwise to keep out of it in all other respects.
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