Nigerian airlines lose N2.5bn annually to foreign trainers — NCAA

Nigerian airlines lose at least N2.5bn annually to foreign firms engaged in routine training of the nation’s pilots, the Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Dr. Harold Demuren, has said.

Pilots’ simulator training, also called recertification training, is done once every six months by all pilots in Nigeria in accordance with the NCAA’s regulation.

Demuren, who gave the indication, in a document obtained by our correspondent on Friday, decried the huge amount of capital flight.

He linked the development to failure of Nigerian businessmen to establish pilots’ simulator training centres in the country.

According to him, airline with four aircraft spends at least $450,000 on simulator training. This means that the airline spends $112,500 on pilot training for each aircraft.

Consequently, the eight known airlines in Nigeria flying a total of 74 airplanes spend $8.3m (N1.25bn) every six month, and $16.7m (N2.5bn) every year.

The regulatory agency boss said there were lots of investment opportunities in the aviation sector and urged investors to tap into them.

He said, “Aviation will unleash its full potential if the private sector buys into the transformation agenda and leverage on the emerging opportunities in the sector. Nigeria will continue to be an attractive market due to its huge population.

“We are losing so much money to foreign countries annually on cost of routine (C-checks) maintenance carried out outside the country. This is due to the fact that we do not have any company where these C-checks can be done. However, there are facilities for A-checks and B-checks. This is a huge yawning investment opportunity for local investors.”

He also said the pilots would not need to travel outside for recertification and aircraft simulator training test if local investors would avail themselves of the opportunities.

He stressed that the government could not develop Nigeria’s fast growing aviation sector alone, hence the need for private sector involvement.