As political campaigns for the general election heats up, charters operators have emerged one of the biggest beneficiaries as private jets and helicopters have become the prefered mode of transportation.

The four major presidential front runners, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso and their entourage, have been seen regularly using jets to move from state to state for their campaign rallies. While it is known that Tinubu and Atiku own their private jets, the candidate of the LP, does not own one and has been spotted multiple times on economy seats of airlines like Air Peace.

However, for this campaign, Obi is making use of private jets and a helicopter for easy movement. But whether a jet is personally owned or rented, charter operators are making a killing as the movement from one state to the other is not limited to presidential candidates. Governors, Ministers, Senators, House of Representative members and top politicians who move from state to state for campaigns are known to hire planes that would take them around.

The president of the National Association of Air Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), Abednego Galadima, told Daily Sun that it cost about N13 million to hire an Embraer for a day, while Executive jets cost less.

“The cost of chartering a plane depends on the destination and the capacity of the aircraft. For an Embraer, it usually costs around N13 million for the entire day but some Executive Jets may not cost up to that amount. Those ones can cost about $10,000 which is between seven and eight million naira. Some of the Challenger aircraft do not have the same number of seats as an Embraer.

“For helicopters which are used by candidates like Peter Obi to go from one point to the other within states can be a little expensive. For oil operations, it used to cost about $4000 a day to rent helicopters and if they do anything outside certain locations, the cost increases. It also depends on the type of helicopters.

“It is also important to note that a number of the operators have been around and those that are targeting the season usually wet lease jets to be able to cash in during political campaigns,” he said.

For owners of private jets, the chairman of NAAPE, Arik Air chapter, Mudi Muhammad, an engineer, said the cost of fuel, landing charges, pilots fees add up to the expenses.

“Sometimes when you want to charter a plane, the cost is calculated per hour depending on the distance that you are traveling. Even if you are not renting and you have a private plane, like a Hawker jet which consumes more fuel than a Venom, you would still have to pay your engineers, pilots, landing and parking fees, fuel and other charges. But it is a fact that the chattered operations sector is thriving at the moment because we see many politicians using jets to move from state to state for their campaigns,” he said. (Saturday Sun)

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