January 17, (THEWILL) – With massive investments in manpower development and infrastructure, Finchglow Holdings is already making progress toward its 2025 expectations.
More additions have been made to meet the company’s expectations for the year and achieve its paradigm shift initiative.
For instance, their new office facility launched in 2024, increased staff strength, widened scope of its trade partners, the inclusion of new course content for cabin crew training and other initiatives have helped to properly position Finchglow Holdings ahead of 2025.
Speaking during an interactive session with aviation journalists on Thursday, on the company’s expectations for 2025 at the Lagos Aviation Academy facility in Ikeja, Bernard, who confirmed that the group had started with a paradigm shift informed that the leadership team had been increased by bringing on board, a Managing Director for Finchglow TravelDen, Mr Olugbenga Onitilo, who will be making a lot of changes on how business is done.
According to him, the first live edition of Finchglow Partners Plus held in Abuja in 2024, which had over 140 trade partners in attendance, is expected to soar this year.
On LAA, Bernard said the new facility is a milestone for the institution and that at each point in time, the school has over 100 students, with the attraction of students from the United Kingdom, Ghana and Cameroon because of the uniqueness of its facility.
Due to the improvement of standards at LAA, Bernard noted that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) increased the number of their cabin crew trainees from 25 to 50 after inspection of their facilities during the accreditation process.
Bankole also revealed that a number of hidden opportunities have emerged from the various problems that Nigeria’s aviation industry has faced in recent years.
Giving an example with ‘Detty December’, the GMD said: “Our weak currency is a major factor that created Detty December for us. Nigeria became a cheap place for people to come to. It happened when our currency was weak. It made people visit Nigeria.”
In the same vein, he pointed out that the accident records of the previous years had compelled most domestic airlines to subject themselves to IATA’s Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) such that many of them now have IOSA Certificates, thereby addressing the existing airline safety challenge.
With the success recorded in the IOSA acquisition, Bernard strongly believes that the next phase would be the commercial issue of being in the IATA clearing house to obtain benefits of forex, partnerships, inventory, investment opportunities worldwide and going beyond point-to-point ticket sales.
He also observed that the approach of the Minister of Aviation & Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), to industry issues, is creating awareness about Nigeria’s aviation industry such that the industry is one of the most talked about sectors under the current government.
Corroborating Bernard’s positions, the Managing Director of one of Finchglow’s subsidiaries, TravelDen, Mr Olugbenga Onitilo, stated that one of the major things the company will focus on this year, is the launching of an Online Travel Agency (OTA), enough inventory offering, fully functional service call centres.
Noting that some key cities in the south-east and south-south are yet untapped, Onitilo assured that the company is going to invest a lot in customer service expansion in the form of secondary markets.
On CSR, he said, “We will be creating opportunities where we empower Nigerians, partner with CSOs, NGOs so that we can empower people. We are creating a disruption in the market and will show service excellence.”
Also emphasising their CSR plans for the year 2025, the Managing Director of another Finchglow subsidiary, FCM Nigeria, Adejoju Olutimayin, said: “We have done a couple of CSR in the past, feeding motherless babies in Lekki. This year, our focus will be on feeding the less privileged. We will try to feed as many children as possible.”
In his presentation, the Managing Director of Finchglow Travels, Mr Ezekiel Ikotun, said the Live edition of the Partners Plus Connect would be held again in 2025 and that the company also intends to feed people in vulnerable communities in alignment with the zero hunger target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Also, as part of its ambitious plans for the year 2025, the Head of School & Training, Lagos Aviation Academy, Mr Bolaji Durojaiye, informed that the school has added both Embraer and CRJ aircraft type for the cabin crew training in addition to Boeing, which they have.
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
