Nigeria’s Aviation Industry, Others Need $80bn To Survive Covid-19 Impact-IATA

Nigerian and other world aviation industries will need up to $80bn to scale through the coronavirus induced crisis, International Air Transport Association said.

The AITA Director General and Chief Executive Officer of Alexandre de Juniac said this on Friday.

De Juniac said, “We are extremely grateful to them for having injected $160 billion into the sector,” Alexandre de Juniac, director general of the International Air Transport Association, said on Friday at the Paris Air Forum, hosted by newspaper La Tribune.

“For the coming months, the industry’s needs are evaluated at $70-80 billion in additional aid…Otherwise some airlines will not survive.”

“It’s quite probable that we will be looking at bigger losses than the figures we announced.”

He stated that the deficit will hit $100bn.

In Nigeria, the Minister of Aviation, Hidi Sirika, had said the aviation sector lost  N21bn on monthly basis during the Covid- 19 induced lockdown in the country.

According to Airline Operators of Nigeria,  airlines  lost over N360bn  between March and  April following the outbreak of coronavirus.

Medview Airline Plc following the distress faced by airlines had sold two aircrafts saying the move was “in order to enable the company to liquidate part of its indebtedness and inject part of the funds into its operations so as to jump-start it again after the covid-19 pandemic total lockdown.”