The chief executive officer (CEO) of Ibom Air, Capt. Mfon Udom, has urged the Nigerian government to help grow the capacity of Nigerian insurance companies to enable them handle aviation insurance completely and exclusively in order to protect and save the industry from predatory business practices of foreign insurance firms.
This is because he believes that the premiums paid by Nigerian airlines to foreign insurance companies keeps rising due to presumed country risks to which these foreign insurance brands continue to lay claims.
The Ibom Air CEO said this when he received Ambassador Ikechi Uko, who is organiser of the Akwaaba African Travel Market, at the head office of Ibom Air in Uyo, the capital city of Akwa Ibom State.
Ambassador Uko was in Uyo to invite Ibom Air to the 2021 edition of the Abuja Jabamah, where Ibom Air will receive the award as the Best Airline in Nigeria for the year 2020.
However, Udom still wants the nationally disadvantaged business position in which Nigerian airlines struggle to succeed to be completely reversed, and urgently so.
According to him, “the system at play now does not help the industry and the passengers are paying the price for it. Even the Nigerian economy is not benefiting from the current situation.”
Capt. Udom, while thanking Ambassador Uko and his team, emphasized that Ibom Air has done very well so far because it kept to its business plans, hired the best staff available and did not chase opportunities.
“The vision of the state governor is to create a hub in Uyo, create jobs and generate economic activity for the state. Our success is because of the vision. We are happy with the honours that we have earned after providing good services to our passengers,” he further expressed.
Talking about the challenges the airline faced in its 18 months of operation, Capt. Udom said that the Covid-19 lockdown almost derailed the trajectory of growth for the airline, but also expressed confidence that the state aviation company was back to the original path after covering up the gaps identified and will soon be announcing good results.
“The patronage has improved and today the airline has the best ontime performance in Nigeria,” he said.
On the issue of insurance, he harped on the weak capacity of the domestic insurance companies.
He lamented that “no insurance company is able to completely insure a Nigerian airline. Then, the reinsurance arrangements create 3rd parties and brokers that prevent efficient underwriting arrangements.”
In order to reverse this negative trend, the Ibom Air helmsman said he wants the government to “force local insurance companies to scale up their capacity and, maybe, tweak the law to allow airlines to work directly with underwriters.”
