Why we’re yet to operate regional
flights – Trevor Worthington, Managing Director,
Chanchangi Airlines
By UCHE USIM
Monday, March 10, 2008
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•Trevor
Worthington
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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In business management, there are those who believe in creating
a niche for themselves by overcoming challenges others will
consider insurmountable. This is where Trevor Worthington,
Managing Director of Chanchangi Airlines, best fits.
While a lot of people may consider the aviation business very
volatile, fragile and laden with unlimited risks, Worthington
believes the success of any enterprise depends on hardwork,
focus and dedication.
This was exactly the approach adopted in setting up Chanchangi
Airlines in 1997.
Eleven years down the line, the airline is waxing stronger
with zero accident record. A development he says stems from
the safety consciousness of the company.
According to Worthington, the story is not all of sweet and
no sweat as the company has had to grapple with various infrastructural
and operational challenges.
The English man told Daily Sun that he came to Nigeria courtesy
of the United African Company (UAC) in 1968 and decided to
settle in the country.
While working for UAC, Worthington saw other openings in the
private sector and so he moved on.
As he moved on, he eventually landed in Chanchangi where he
appears to have pitched his tent.
In this interview, Worthington tells how he has been able
to manage various companies, his challenges as the managing
director of the airline, his vision and views about the aviation
sector.
Excerpts
I’m from the United Kingdom (UK). I came to Nigeria
in 1968 with the United African Company (UAC). I’m a
mechanical engineer by profession and worked in UAC for about
nine and half years. I then joined Alhaji Kaloma Ali who was
in Kano. I was with him in an advising capacity. I later joined
Alhaji Chanchangi in December 1979 and I have been with him
from 1979 till date.
I was the general manager of one of his companies. When they
were clearing Abuja, we handled part of the job. We had a
clearing and construction company then. We worked with a company
from London. From there, we proceeded with the road transport
company and I became the general manager of the firm in 1982.
Later, I became the managing director and after that, we started
the airline.
My attraction to Nigeria
By being in Nigeria for such a long time, as you would put
it, is a challenge. A challenge to see something built from
zero level to make great success. It’s not easy, but
you’re fulfilled when you see something you started
from the scratch, thriving and waxing stronger and stronger.
It’s really fulfilling.
Journey so far
We’ve operated 8,750 flights and carrying in excess
of 750,000 people. Also, we’ve operated more than 56
international charter flights. One thing we’re trying
to do in Chanchangi is keep the airline as safe as possible
with no exception for profit and no cost held back. Safety
is the key word in aviation. As you’ve probably seen,
in most airlines throughout the world, the priority is safety.
This we’ve imbibed and we’ll keep it up. We’ll
never operate an aircraft that is unsafe. Our aircraft you’ll
hear from time to time do have to return to base for various
reasons. Let me say here that on most aircraft, there are
two items of everything.
This is a safety precaution made by the manufacturers. So
at times, a warning light may come on, indicating a problem.
It doesn’t mean the aircraft is not safe at that stage.
No. Like I said, in the airplane, most items are two. So,
the pilot will use that opportunity of a second option to
return to base and we’ll change the aircraft. We always
change aircraft to enable us fix the one that has faults.
We give such aircraft to our engineering crew to look at it
properly before it’s used again. Often, we do a test
flight with the crew, engineers and the quality assurance
team before embarking on a full commercial operation.
We encourage the return to base approach that than having
to “manage’ the situation or trying to patch up
while in the air. Our rule is that once there is any untoward
development, try to return to base if the aircraft has not
gone far or better still, land at the nearest airport. That
is a safety standard and procedure and we make sure our crew
imbibes that. It may be inconveniencing to the passengers
but it’s still in their best interest and that of the
nation as a whole.
As an airline, we try to do everything safely and correctly.
But regarding the media, I’m sorry to say, some of them
do always follow this guideline. The Press has a serious responsibility
in their various organizations and networks because misquotations
and sensationalism in journalism isn’t the best for
aviation. I know it sells newspapers. I’m aware of that
fact. It’s done overseas and it’s done even in
the tabloid in my country also. But it isn’t wise on
aviation. Very, very rare in the Western countries to see
tabloids using aviation to sell newspapers. For instance,
if you say this man is missing, they’ll blame football
or whatever, but you’ll never see aviation on the front
headlines as you’re seeing in Nigeria and this is sad
because aviation is a serious business all over the world.
No one likes to fly. We’re not birds, we’ve not
got wings. We’re simply flying in a piece of machine
and we all know that machinery can go wrong anytime. You saw
what happened to British Airways in London Heathrow not too
long ago. They had a technical problem but thank God, they
landed safely. Indeed, the pilot did a very good job and no
one was injured.
Dwindling fortunes of Chanchangi
I don’t think that’s correct because if you look
at the statistics or if you go to the air traffic controllers,
you’ll discover that Chanchangi Airlines is still carrying
the largest number of passengers as we speak. You just go
and check the facts. Even yesterday, I was in Lagos and we
had to board an extra flight. We operated at B727 flight to
Abuja from Lagos with 162 passengers. We came back with 138.
That was surplus to our schedule.
Phasing out old aircraft
Our B727s will be phased out completely very soon. But I must
state clearly that purchasing aircraft is not a one day’s
job. There is a procedure put in place by the NCAA and we’re
following that regulation very strictly. Purchasing aircraft
is not like going to the car mart to purchase a good second
hand vehicle, the type we call Tokunbo. In the case of Tokunbo,
you simply open the bonnet, inspect it and if you like what
you’ve seen, you simply agree on the price, pay and
drive it home. But in aircraft, the story is totally different.
There is a history to trace in the case of an airplane. Often,
in the world, you’ll find out that somebody has bought
an aircraft that he regretted. It has even happened here in
Nigeria, but I’m not going to name the airline involved.
The company brought in several aircraft and due to various
irregularities, the airline just couldn’t fly the aircraft.
They were dumped all because there was no traceability of
the documentation of the aircraft. Here in Chanchangi, we
have departments that ensure that procedures of aircraft purchase
and management are strictly adhered to. That is how we operate
here and that’s what we’ll continue to do. If
you came a bit earlier, you’ll see all the people occupying
the specialized departments.
So, we’ll bring the aircraft we want to purchase into
the country once all the prerequisite conditions are met.
The airplanes will come once we know the papers and records
are correct, the price is right and the equipment are sound
for our operations in Nigeria. We won’t hurry into acquiring
new airplanes to avoid grave mistakes that can destabilize
us. No, we won’t be hurried by anyone. We’ll take
it one step at a time. I must also say that there is nothing
wrong with the aircraft we’re operating now. In fact,
some aircraft operated overseas are much older than our aircraft.
The 737s we brought in 2005 came from Air Canada.
Another set came in from Casino Express in the United States
(US). The 727s we had were formerly six but now, we’re
operating two. That is our phase out policy. So, by the end
of this year, we’ll phase out the 727s completely. But
we have to admit as well that the B727 is one of the strongest
aircraft that has ever been produced. It’s not like
the plastics and other soft stuffs you talk about. You keep
hearing of the B787 Dreamliners, but where is the Dreamliner?
It’s still in the manufacturing shop because they have
problems with the composite body. When they flew it, they
discovered the faults and they came back to the shop to deal
with the issues.
It’s an aircraft when it is on the ground, it increases
in size because of higher temperature and when it is in the
air, it decreases in size because of cold. Concorde jets used
to generate its own heat when in the air because of the speed
it went. Concorde used to grow by eight inches in length when
it used to do the supersonic flights. It had a sliding mechanism
built into it, so it could expand because of hot temperature
and contract because of cold temperature. So, these are things
you’ve got to look at. So, buying an aircraft is not
a one day’s job. More so, we’re not just buying
aircraft for the sake of it but we’re buying aircraft
that can serve our customers in Nigeria, at least, for the
next 10 years. So, we’ll do it well and correctly.
When will the new airplanes arrive?
Right now, we’re at the final negotiation and financial
stage. Once we complete that stage, we’ll then move
our technical people in. Right now, we’re looking at
six different aircraft and they’ll all be Boeing. B737-300
will be inclusive and we’ll start getting them from
April. They’ll come in batches.
Non operation of regional designations
At the moment, we’re not ready for international operations.
We want to perfect our local operations first before going
international. We’re not like some of the airlines,
whose names I won’t want to mention here. They will
operate their aircraft in Nigeria for about five to six landings
and in the evening, they’ll go to the West Coast. We
don’t want to operate that way. Rather, we do our maintenance
in the evenings. We also do our maintenance at weekends. This
weekend for instance, we’re sending three of our engines
overseas for complete rebuild. Those engines will gulp about
750,000 dollars by the time they come back. More so, there
is one aircraft we’ll change its engine this weekend.
Challenges
There is always a challenge for anyone in life once you are
engaged in one form of activity or the other. The challenge
is always there. It doesn’t matter what you really do.
Whether you’re selling tomatoes or you’re into
contracts or you run an airline, you’re faced with one
challenge or the other. As an airline operator, at time the
weather is bad, the transport system is poor, you open shops,
someone comes to sell next to you and so on, you still have
to survive and you have to go forward but you don’t
drop your standards. That is what we’re faced with in
Chanchangi and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
We have no intention to lower our standards and that on its
own is a challenge. We’ll keep our aircraft safe and
sound as much as possible.
Delays
We try as much as possible to operate within our schedules
and we’ll ensure we keep to the schedule. Let me say
that there’ll be delays and at times, not from us but
from perhaps weather and other operational hitches that are
no fault of ours. I’m waiting for the day that the resurfacing
works on the domestic runway (18L) of the Murtala Muhammed
Airport Airport, Lagos is completely ended. You can imagine
the delays that we have taxying from the new domestic terminal
(MMA 2) to the international runway (18R).
I came into Kaduna from Lagos yesterday with our flight 334.
We were standing on the threshold for 47 minutes. With the
taxying time from MMA 2 to the international runway which
is between 7 to 10 minutes, that means about one hour of fuel
burn, yet we’ve not increased our tickets price. So,
the sooner the domestic runway is opened, the better for us
and other operators as a whole. It’s really costing
the airlines a lot to operate from the international runway.
Manpower development
Manpower development is very important for the survival of
any nation’s aviation sector. Everyone knows and it’s,
indeed, not a secret that there has been very little training
in Nigeria since the days of the national carrier, Nigeria
Airways Limited (NAL). Unfortunately, NAL is no more there.
NAL did the robust training it did because it had a good foundation.
We’re trying to emulate that airline. If you look at
our staff, 80 per cent of the people we have are ex-NAL. And
like I’m now, we’re all getting older and the
people from NAL, sadly, are equally getting older.
So, the next generation is required and this is what we hope
to get from the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT),
Zaria. We can’t continue to lament over the drought
of manpower like pilots and engineers without doing something
about it. If we don’t check that now, we’ll keep
giving room for expatriates to flood the sector. Chanchangi
probably has the largest number of expatriates in its workforce.
Just look at our staffing structure and you’ll see what
I’m saying. We have many of them; name it, pilots, engineers
etc. But we’re tackling the issue of manpower drought
in Chanchangi through sound training programmes.
Let me assure you of our commitment in training, we’ve
already trained four pilots into our airline and we’ll
continue to train. But obviously with NCAT, Zaria, the process
will be faster. The estimation globally is that there would
be 2,400 pilots required for China only in the next 10 years.
That’s just for China only and we would require about
1,400. So, the calculation is that if we don’t start
training now, people will start going out because it would
become a price market. Countries with money will keep increasing
the salaries and allowances of professionals just to attract
them. Obviously, with fat salaries and better conditions of
service abroad, many people will go.
Worse still, airlines back home cannot match such high pay
package and if they want to increase salaries, then they’ll
have to pass the impact onto the tickets. Ticket prices will
increase dramatically because there is no place we can get
the money from except the tickets. And if the air fares get
too high, you’ll scare passengers away. So, you can
see the situation and the challenges airlines are faced with.
So, the simple way out is to embark on massive training programme
for the professionals, so that they’ll work for you.
So, in Chanchangi Airlines, we’ve started our training
and it’s going to be continuous. Like I mentioned earlier,
our Training Manager is in Serbia at the moment. He’s
negotiating with JAT Technik to bring back engineering Instructors
because there is a huge shortage of aircraft engineers and
technicians.
Let me also say here that we’ve sent quite a number
of people to NCAT. All our dispatchers went through NCAT.
We’ve our classroom here approved by NCAA and as such
we don’t always send all our staff to Zaria. If we sent
them, then cost increases. We start talking about fees, accommodation,
allowances and so on. So, some pass through our in-house training
and those we feel need to go to NCAT or overseas for more
training are sent there. With that, it’s better to bring
the instructor to the classroom and that’s what we’re
going to do. That is why our staff are currently negotiating
with JAT Technik to bring instructors down to Nigeria. That’s
the way we operate. That is our programme and that’s
what we’ll do.
Dealing with recurrent aviation fuel scarcity
The thing is that everything that has to do with aviation
fuel has to be treated with caution. We transport aviation
fuel. Indeed, everybody knows that we came from road transport.
We’ve 540 tankers for petroleum transport. We do transport
for Shell and co. We used to transport aviation fuel in those
days. So, we know the dangers associated with handling aviation
fuel. It could get wet. For instance, in the rainy season,
it could get damp and in that case, it means the quality is
lower. Therefore, under such circumstances, you have to heat
it to take out the dampness or condensation. Mostly, they
do that by parking the tankers in the sun to evaporate it
off, that is, the dampness. But the main is that they have
their laboratories and as such they pass all fuel through
the laboratories prior to being loaded into the aircraft.
This is very expensive to do, I must admit. I agree that aviation
fuel is quite expensive. But why in Nigeria is aviation fuel
$300 a ton more expensive than in London Heathrow? Why is
aviation fuel more expensive in Lagos than it is in Accra?
What is it that they have that Nigeria has not got? What are
the reasons for the increase? Why the discrepancy? That is
something the media has to look into. If we put pressure,
we’ll get to handle the issues better. Kerosene, you
already know the price. Aviation fuel, it’s oscillating
between N97 and N112 per litre, depending on the state where
you bought it. Aviation fuel is only two stages in the refinery.
Further down the line, you’ll get the kerosene. About
five stages down the line, you’ll get the petrol and
yet look at the price.
But dealers know that if they increased the price of petrol
or kerosene, there will be an outcry on the streets. People
will protest it and at times it engenders strike. Perhaps,
that’s because it touches more people. In Nigeria, there
are 150 million people and so the question is that how many
people fly? Certainly quite a very small fraction. So, they
can really push. Worse still, the fuel marketers have a cartel.
They’ve got a captive market. I believe they’re
handling a dense and security-sensitive fuel that they have
to carefully look after. Of course, we know that this has
a cost. We’re not saying that it should be the same
price with petrol or kerosene. But on the other hand, I don’t
understand why it is far far more expensive here in Nigeria
than it is in Accra.
Birds strike
Birds strike incident is very bad for any operator. Indeed,
it can really disorganize an airline. A serious bird strike
incident can condemn an aircraft engine completely such that
the damage goes far beyond the blades. Birds strike has cost
our airline N940 million between 2006 till date. So, we don’t
want to have any more bird strikes in Nigeria. There was a
time it was very frequent. We were not the only airline affected,
it touched virtually all the domestic operators in the country.
Assessment of the nation’s aviation industry
First of all, I’ll like to congratulate the DG of NCAA,
Dr Harold Demuren. I’ve had meetings with him. We’ve
been in this aviation for close to 11 years and for me, the
improvements that have come on are attributed to his dedication.
He’s brought the nation’s aviation to a standard
that is accepted throughout the world. We’re under audit,
audit and audit. This year alone, we’ve had three audits,
two from NCAA and from the International Air Transport Association
(IATA). And I’m glad to say that in each case, they
were very pleased with Chanchangi Airlines from what we have
on ground.
IOSA audit
We did the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) in November
2006 and the result was very good. Hence, we’re moving
ahead. The next one now will be IATA audit. We just had a
two-day with men from South Africa and another from Cameroon
because the auditors always come from a different country
of the airline they want to audit. The IOSA audit of 2006
was carried out by two persons from Australia. So far we’re
moving forward.
Management style
In Chanchangi, our operations are so structured that various
departments know exactly their specific goal and they work
to achieve it. So, by the time each department meets its target,
the overall result will be impressive. That’s how we
operate. We really believe in teamwork and cooperation. That
is how I function as well. From the Quality Assurance department
to the Control to Finance and so on, there is that common
goal, which is success. Like I said, if you came a little
earlier, you would have seen many of our managerial staff.
They went for meetings in Abuja and Lagos. It’s not
a one-man-show but a teamwork. Personally, I encourage hardwork,
dedication to duties and focus. Any staffer who works hard
is recognized.
Marketing strategy
If you see the airline, you’ll discover that we’ve
re-branding it. We’ve changed our crew uniform and that’s
part of the re-branding. We’re an airline of the people
and we’ll always strive to satisfy the yearnings and
aspirations of our customers. If you also observe, we’ve
kept our ticket prices lower than any other airline and yet
delivering quality service. We accept there are things we’ll
work on and we’ll keep doing everything possible to
satisfy our clients.
Vision
I believe Chanchangi will grow and grow and grow. That’s
my vision for the airline. There is no rush to go international.
Let’s get our house in order, do the domestic service
properly. From that, we’ll then get the facts and figures
correctly, get the right aircraft to do the right job and
then start off the regional operations.
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