Mr Bankole Bernard, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Finchglow Group, is also the immediate past President of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA). In this interview, he speaks on the move to concession the airports and other issues in the aviation industry.

There has been a controversy over the planned concession of the airports. Some advocated for commercialisation instead of concession of the airports. Which is more effective?

We have all been distracted with the concessioning of the four major airports in Nigeria that we consider to be viable and we have neglected other airports all in the name of the fact that they are not commercially viable, and my question is: Where is the document that revealed to any of us that those airports are not commercially viable? Are we looking at passengers as the only means that makes an airport commercially viable?

And that alone attracts passengers to patronise such an airport. So, if we have such a viable business outlook, why should we continue to say an airport is not commercially viable? There are quite a lot of things that we need to do and when we put those things in the right perspective, an airport becomes commercially viable.

If you say it is not commercially viable, why don’t you allow those that have interest in those airports to turn them around? I have always said that government is not in the business of doing business. They are regulators. They should stick to their strength, which is regulating, while we allow the business people to handle the business aspect of this.

Akure airport for instance had only one airline going there before, but now about three airlines go there. Are you still saying the traffic is still the way it was? Let me remind you at this point that Nigerians are constantly developing the culture of flying.

Statistics reveal that the recovery of travel in Nigeria is the highest in the world. The figure is higher than the world and continent figures.

But will the government still say the airports are not viable?

There are quite a lot of things we need to do to make our airports commercially viable as long as there is a genuine interest and we give it to those that are passionate about the industry and not give it to our friends to manage.

They have gone far with their concession of the four presumed viable airports. The question is what happens to the rest? Why are we not talking about them? Can we shift our attention to the ones we think are not viable and take a look at them? And if they can make it viable, it will become a different story.

You are the president of the association of aviation training organisations of Nigeria. What gave birth to the association and what do you intend to change?

I have always had this principle that guides me, which is professionalism. This is the first step to shared prosperity. If you find yourself in an environment where professionalism thrives, it means the standard will be high and things will be done properly. So, when you look at the aviation industry, you will find out that a lot of attention is given to the airlines because the regulators and service providers believe that is where the money comes from and other areas have been neglected.

It is the minister that decided to even pay attention to NCAT (Nigerian College of Aviation Technology) by getting them simulators to improve learning in the school. I can say to you today that we are not more than 20 in the sector and it shouldn’t be. In a society of over 200 million people, everyone wants to be a pilot and cabin crew member; we need to speak out about our profession. People are not aware that they could do other courses other than becoming a pilot or an engineer. What happened to flight dispatch? This is one of the courses we do in our school and many more. Read more