 There was a whirlwind of change in the nation's aviation sector. We'll be looking at that and all the critical issues on the show this morning. The President, Ballatini Buu, made a clean sweep of all the chief executive officers of the agencies under the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development. And Nigeria has been facing a severe FX crisis which has made it impossible for international carriers to repatriate accumulated funds from ticket sold in Naira. Many airlines have resorted to various methods to get the attention of the government such as stopping ticket sales and UAE's Emirate airline recently suspended all flights to Nigeria. The total global airline industry blocked funds have increased by 3.96% to US$2.36 billion in September this year from $2.27 billion in April. Of these $1.6 billion is trapped in Africa of which 48% which is $792 million is trapped in Nigeria. I have joining me right now aviation editor of New Telegraph newspapers Wale Shadari to discuss further on this. Good morning Wale. It is indeed our pleasure. Let's just get straight to the point. What's going on with the aviation sector? Like I said about $792 million is trapped in Nigeria and now there is a huge shake-up. Do you see all of this coming really what's been happening in the past 48 hours? I saw it coming. I even think that the Minister tarried it while for taking the decision too because if you look at it most times when the new government comes in either the cabinet, the government as it were decide or the minister decide to bring people he believed that can work with him, people that have the same synergy, the same energy with him and he's not anything on towards his like they say changes permanent. He has also looked at the sector and felt that there's a need to pull the right people in the right places. I'm not saying the people that were removed were bad. Some of them were good, some of them were fantastic. But like I said, what is the permanent thing in life is change and I also believe that this reason for doing that after the stakeholders forum was for him to look at where he can bring in new people, new people with new drive, new people with the ability to deliver the goods. The aviation industry in Nigeria has very safe, Nigeria has one of the best safety records when it comes to aviation in the whole world. But like I said, we need new hands, we need people who can really take the sector to the next level. And for one or two people that have been removed, I think that maybe I'm not the minister and the minister may have taken the decision based on the report before him. I think one of them should have been like the director general of the Nigeria safety investigation group that in a latter should have remained because of the exemplary things he has done and the director general of Nigeria metrological agency professor Matazo. These guys have done fantastically well. But like I said, it depends on the report that is before the minister and his direction towards moving the aviation industry forward. So there's nothing new, it's within his power, it's within the power of the president to think out with the agency's head and to bring in new drive like I've said and to see where we can leverage on the good things that we have done over the years. Alright, but since you said that it is not really untold and so it is not like a surprise to you. But looking at all of this- No, it was a surprise in the sense that this is the first time we are seeing this type of a clean sweep. In the past, you see maybe two, three heads of the aviation agencies were removed. But this is the first time we're having a total clean sweep. But we just hope that this clean sweep will also bring the desire. But one of the interesting appointment he has made is that of Nigeria airspace management passengers by bringing in engineer Farouk Ahmed Huma is one of the best hands you can get around. Alright, so let's just talk more about the shake-up. The president had said that the reason for this shake-up is to bring him, let me just quote, a world-class standard to the nation's civil aviation space to ensure consumer protection, promotion and well-being of passengers. But what are your expectations really, Wale, from this new crop of leadership? Yes, my expectation is that we'll begin to move. Yeah, the sector hasn't done badly, although we have some issues that gave us concern, especially the regulatory body. I think the regulatory body, the NCA, had been the weakest link in the chain of aviation safety in Nigeria. So it was a work on development that the DGA of NCA was removed, particularly when it concerns graft. So my expectation is that we'll continue to see a new drive, we'll begin to see things that we have not seen before in a way that the aviation industry will improve. Yes, the aviation industry, like Seha, has not done badly, but we need fresh blood. We need people who have the drive, people that are as young as Minister Kayamu, that can really deliver the goods. So I'm very, very confident that we're going to see a change because the minister has been pushing the sector, the minister has been on top of this sector. Yes, some people will say he has taken the function of the regulatory body, but when you have a very weak regulatory body, the buck stops on the minister's table if anything happens in the aviation industry. And honestly, nobody can afford the minister for the action he has taken so far. The only concern I see there is that the NSIB teaching should have been allowed because he has done fantastically well. And I believe that reward for hard work is more work rather than removing. Apart from that, the minister has done exceedingly well. And if you look at the appointment, it costs across all the geopolitical zones of the country. It's not like in the past where you have a certain region dominating the aviation industry. It costs across, and he has some of the best hands that he feels can help him to the verticals. All right. So let's talk about the issue of trap funds, $792 million US dollars. All that is going on right now with the shake-up and all of that, you actually will see any change. And precisely, late September, President Bola Ahmed Tinibu directed the CBN to create a platform for quarterly reconciliation meetings with foreign airlines to address the backlog of trapped funds. And earlier last month, plans to clear FX backlogs were rolled out. Unfortunately, little progress has been made. What are your thoughts, really? I think I was in Geneva for the IATA event when this announcement was made. It was actually very, very embarrassing. I think that was last week or two weeks ago in Geneva when we had a global media team, where IATA came to tell us how the sector globally had had a third in the last one year. And what also came out from that is that African airlines are going to make over 500 million Naira losses in 2020-2024. But let us put that aside. The issue of trap fund has been a recurring thing for the past three, four years. And it's becoming very, very embarrassing. But the Minister of Education, Mr. Keamo, has moved the step further to make sure that, you know, it's not within his power. It's between the CBN. This money is trapped in CBN. It has nothing to do with the minister. To even move ahead, the minister had met with the central bank, met with the president, to see how some of these monies could be released to the airlines. And that is the reason why we are having high fares. If you compare the fares from Nigeria to maybe UK, for instance, is two, three times what you have in Ghana. And what the airlines have done, because they don't want their money to be stopped, what they do is to close the lower invention and open the highest invention. So in the past, when we used to have lower invention, we do not have that because of what we have done. And honestly, I'm appealing to the federal government that we should look at ways to make sure that we defrate this debt. It's becoming embarrassing. Anytime you go for international conference or conferences, Nigeria becomes a lot of joke in the international arena. We should sit down with the airlines, sit down with the IATA declaring money and see how we can resolve this amicably with them. In 2016, we had issues like this that made United Airlines to leave Nigeria. The US based airline to leave Nigeria. Emirates has done the same thing. And the international airline is also threatening to leave the country. Nigerian airlines do not have the capacity to reciprocate or to provide the services these airlines are providing. If these airlines decide to leave, which I find that it should be practically impossible for all of them to leave. But at the point, if we do not do anything to resolve this matter, some of them will leave. And if some of them leave, we're going to have a big vacuum. Our airlines cannot feed this vacuum. So we're going to suffer for it. We're already suffering from our own action or inaction. Because if you're traveling to London, for instance, now on economy, it's over 200,000, 2 million naira or 3 million naira. But if you go to Ghana, our neighbors here, you can fly with 700,000, 800,000 naira. Who is losing? Nigeria is losing. They are moving their operations to other African countries. And Ghana and Togo are trying to make their country hub and evasion. Nigeria should be the hub of evasion, not Togo. Because we have the population, we have the market, we have everything it takes to make evasion better than what it is today. And that is why I know that the minister of evasion is concerned about this. He wouldn't want Nigerians to be dragged in the mud. So we need to begin to look for ways to resolve this problem as quickly as possible. Nigeria is not the only country going. We have Ethiopia, we have other countries. But what Nigeria is doing is more than what five African countries are doing in this airline. So we should begin to see how we can resolve this. And the airlines have also said, we know you, we may not be able to pay this money at the go because of forest crisis. But if we can, if we begin to look for ways to settle, maybe in three months, you give us 50 million. The next three months, you give us 100 million. Within two years, you will find this money. But it's quite unfortunate where we have found ourselves. But I know the minister is not comfortable with what is happening, and I'm very, very sure it's going to work towards it. For the sake of time, let's just talk about, still on civil aviation, but specifically, let's just narrow it down. We've seen the situation with international flight and the trap phones. But let's talk, let's bring it back home. Let's talk about local travels now. Average flights during this period has picked between about 150, 200K this season. I would have just said it was the issue of demand and supply Christmas and everything. But flight tickets have not been cheap, Wale, for quite some time now. What exactly is going on? Most people cannot even afford to go by road because of fear of kidnapping. What are we doing? Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, there are two things to this. During the peak period, the most we call peak period, especially December period to January period, that is where there's huge demand for air travel. At that period, airlines make a lot of money. And because of demand that are outweighs supply, they tend to increase fast. But let's even take it away from that. Airfares are very expensive in like, not expensive, I put expensive, but if you really look at it compared to the dollar rate, you'll find that airfare is even less than $70 per hour. Whereas in Europe, it's more than $100, depending on the time you're buying your ticket. If you look at aviation, aviation is only dollar rise. Everything in aviation is dollar rise. Honestly, I even wonder how the airlines have continued to remain in operation. Because if you want to service your aircraft, you ferry this aircraft abroad and you cannot spend less than two, three million dollars to service one aircraft if you go for C check or D check. And $303 million dollars is more than 300 million Naira, if I'm correct. But at times, it even runs into several billions of dollars to do a check. And you also look at the aviation for jet fuel. It's so expensive, but it has been stable in the last one year. Yes, for quite some time now. We are $700 and $800. And if we have stability in the price of jet fuel, airlines can plan, you know, they can even buy in bulk. At least there will be volatility in the price of jet fuel. But you also look at other costs. You look at overhead, you look at cost of operation, you look at some other things that they won't happen. You look at best strike and at times an airline can even be on the taxi way and they're struck by a bed, one small bed like that. And to change an engine of their aircraft can cost you almost $5 million or $6 million depending on the type of aircraft it has done. So it is really, really expensive. But they say the airlines also need to watch it in the sense that if you look at the propensity to fly by Nigerians, it's very, very low. And many people are really flying. It is the same group of people that are flying, businessmen, government officials. What is the monthly income of an average Nigerian? Maybe $100,000 Naira. So if care is not taken, the airlines, if they try to increase this way beyond what it is, people will show air travel and go by road and dam the consequences. So the airlines also need to be very careful. And that is why they have always asked for government intervention. But government cannot continue to pump money into private sector. If government does that, what about the granosella? What about peppersella? In what way has government helped them? This is private business. So you have to cut your coat and come into your side. All right, Wale, we have to really go. Many airlines are going for, okay. Thank you so much. All right. I thought there's a whole lot to say when we talk about aviation, local travel and of course issues of Nigeria's economy. You cannot even exhaust in just one show. But then again, we'll bring you some other time to share more insight. Wale Shadari is a division editor, a new telegraph newspaper. Many thanks for being a part of the show. Thank you for having me. All right. Yeah, that's the size of the show for today. I am Justin Akadene. See you again next time. Bye for now.