A TRAGECOMEDY ON THE STAGE OF NIGERIAN AVIATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 000393 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE PASS FAA TO AHARRIS, TRANSPORTATION TO FAA; STATE PLEASE PASS TO OPIC; DAKAR PLEASE PASS TO FAA REP MOIRA KEANE; ROME PLEASE PASS TO TSA REP JOHN HALINSKI E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/09/2015 TAGS: EAIR EINV PREL NI SUBJECT: A TRAGECOMEDY ON THE STAGE OF NIGERIAN AVIATION REF: LAGOS 268 Classified By: Consul General Brian L. Browne for reasons 1.4 (D). ¶1. (C) Summary: Virgin Nigeria (Virgin) and British Airways (BA) have recently faced a number of obstacles to their operation in Nigeria. Airline insiders claim Virgin and BA have been subjected to a series of arbitrary and inconsistent politically motivated attacks by the Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode. The following tales illustrate that the issues of safety and market competition remain pawns in a game driven by politics and personality. They highlight the limits of autonomy granted by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Administration under the recently-passed Civil Aviation Bill. End Summary. -------------- --- Life Imitates Art...Or, In This Case, A Mob Film -------------- --- ¶2. (C) On May 22, Financial Derivatives Managing Director and Virgin Nigeria Board Member Bismarck Rewane recounted to Econoff the following incidents: -- On May 13, a Presidential aide turned up at a Virgin check-in counter three minutes before the departure of a flight from Abuja to Lagos. He demanded to be boarded. When the Virgin manager stated the flight was full and was about to depart, the aide called the Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, and the Minister instructed the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) not to clear the flight for take-off until the aide was on board. Fani-Kayode then threatened the Virgin manager that, if the aide did not ring him upon arrival in Lagos and declare himself satisfied with Virgin, he would ground the airline. Fani-Kayode then sent six security men to arrest the Virgin manager with orders to beat him up. The manager reseated a passenger into a crew jump seat and gave the previously occupied seat to the aide. A team from Virgin met the aide upon his arrival in Lagos and begged him to call the Minister, which he then did. The six security people took the Abuja manager off the ramp but airport security pleaded with them and they agreed to let the manager go on orders that, if anyone asked him, he should say that they beat him up because that was what they had been ordered to do by the Minister. During this time, Nigerian Civil Aviation Administration (NCAA) Harold Demuren called Virgin Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Conrad Clifford and said the Minister asked NCAA to find some reason to ground Virgin. The Minister ordered NAMA to ground Virgin, but NAMA Managing Director Ado Sanusi, who is a Virgin captain on secondment, refused to do so as it is the NCAA that should legally make grounding decisions. -------------- -------------- Minister Threatens British Airways, Virgin Nigeria Over Slots at London Heathrow -------------- -------------- -- On May 22, Clifford and other staff from Virgin, BA, Arik Airlines, and British High Commissioner Sir Richard Gozny attended a meeting with Fani-Kayode, Demuren, and Sanusi. Fani-Kayode expressed displeasure that Nigerian carriers could not get slots at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) and charged that Nigerian carriers were being singled out for unfair treatment by Airport Coordination Limited (ACL),the company that handled slots at LHR. Fani-Kayode threatened retaliatory action if the situation did not improve within the next few days and said he would force British carriers to fly to Kano and Port Harcourt (ignoring the fact that Port Harcourt is currently closed) instead of Lagos and Abuja. Arik and Bellview representatives complained they could not get slots at LHR, but Clifford noted that Virgin did not have slots at LHR either; however, as former director of ACL, he understood the company's position. (Note: Econoff was in a meeting with Demuren when Minister Kayode called Demuren requesting the meeting about slots at LHR. Demuren told Econoff that the Minister's approach to this issue missed the mark and said he would try to influence Fani-Kayode to pursue this matter in a more appropriate way. End Note.) LAGOS 00000393 002 OF 002 -- On May 23, Sanusi told Clifford he had been instructed by Fani-Kayode to ground BA and Virgin the weekend of May 26-27 to express the Government's displeasure. Sanusi said he tried to reason with the Minister to no avail. Clifford suggested a reasonable strategy to deflect the Minister's wrath might be to have representatives of ACL visit Nigeria to explain to Nigerian carriers how to get slots at LHR and to advise officials on how Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos could become a schedule-coordinated airport. -------------- Threats Continue Over Air Returns -------------- ¶3. (C) In a separate incident on May 22, Demuren informed Clifford that Minister Kayode was setting up a Special Committee with members drawn from the Office of the President and members of the Ministry to look into Virgin's safety record as a result of air returns and into Virgin's "mistreatment" of passengers in delay situations. (Note: According to a press release issued by the company, in the past six months Virgin had six air returns, one each due to weather, bird strike, and VIP movement, while three were a result of under carriage retraction on three different aircraft (reftel). Over this same six-month period, Virgin made 5,336 flights. End Note.) Demuren observed to Clifford Fani-Kayode was searching for reasons to ground Virgin again. The Committee was established with four areas to review: Virgin's overall operation and growth in operations; allegations that Virgin's product has deteriorated; Virgin's safety record; and Virgin's customer relations. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶4. (C) Virgin has been on the sidelines since it was perceived by the Presidential administration as a foreign carrier and not the nascent Nigerian national carrier the GON hoped when the airline first began operations. Air returns, which industry insiders say are a sign that Virgin is following established safety and operating procedures, have been used by the Aviation Minister as an excuse to impose penalties on the airline. These recent actions resonate with the Minister's rhetoric about the "racist" policies of foreign carriers toward Nigeria and Nigerian passengers. ¶5. (C) Comment continued: The pressure applied to NCAA by the Minister, and the NCAA Director General's acquiescence, shows the limits of the NCAA's newly-acquired autonomy. Fani-Kayode is pursuing these measures despite pleas from the directors of the two main aviation regulatory agencies, NCAA and NAMA, suggesting not only a personal agenda but, as industry insiders say, a measure of irrationality as well. End comment. BROWNE