During President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Nigerian domestic airlines allegedly suffered several setbacks, some of them caused by government policies, the fall of the naira and the general economic situation of the time.
In addition to that, the impact of COVID-19 substantially brought the aviation industry to its knees globally and Nigeria’s airline sub-sector was not spared.
When the naira crashed and forex became extremely scarce, it became very difficult for airlines to acquire aircraft, carry out major maintenance of their aircraft overseas. The situation became more deplorable when the airlines paid billions of naira to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with the hope to secure foreign exchange that never came. Their naira was trapped and they never secured the dollar exchange. This became more hopeless when it dawned on the operators that despite the huge investment in their businesses, they could be forced to close shop.