MINISTER of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has declared that the Nigeria Air project was not patriotic enough.
Responding to questions posed to him after the inauguration of the newly-appointed chief executives and directors of the aviation agencies, Keyamo, while acknowledging the fact that the country needed another national carrier’s almost 30 years after the liquidation of the defunct Nigeria Airways, however, maintained that the hitherto Nigeria Air project remains suspended until a directives comes from President Bola Tinubu.
While the latest body language of the minister may have revealed that the Tinubu-led government may still go ahead to package a new national carrier for Nigerians, it is, however, certain that the model of the present government may be different from that of the immediate past government
According to Keyamo: “It is what I have always said. Nigeria Air remains suspended. It remains suspended and very soon, we will get a clear directive on it from Mr President on how to go about it to have a national carrier. We need a national carrier that benefits the status of Nigeria. What I met on the ground was not patriotic enough”.
The minister used the opportunity to assure the travelling public and the airlines that the 18R runway of the Murtala Muhammed Airport which had been under repairs for about a year, would soon be completed.
Reacting to the challenges confronting the domestic airlines in the country, the minister, acknowledged that the airlines were not just challenged by lack of access to loans at a single-digit rate, identified other factors such as lack of access to dry-lease at good terms as among other hindrances confronting the local operators.
“Our local operators do not have access to aircraft. They are struggling. Most of them do wet leases to meet their local obligations. All over the world, airlines do not go on wholesale purchase of aircraft. Even the biggest airlines like Emirates, Qatar and British Airways of this world, most of them have access to loans at single digit rates and we are doing 26 percent interest rate”, Keyamo added.
According to Keyamo, there is no way the airlines would survive with a bank interest rate of 26 percent, even as he hinted of the efforts so far made by the government to persuade aircraft manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus to provide opportunities for the Nigerian carriers to have access to leases at very good terms.
“This is so, so that when we have enough aircraft, there would be competition among the airlines. We can cross that path”, he added.
Speaking on the expensive fares being charged by foreign airlines, the minister attributed the development to the trapped funds which they have complained about not knowing when they would be able to recover from the country.
“Most of them open the highest ticket inventory or the most expensive part of the tickets to Nigerian travellers because, according to them, before now, they did not know whether it would take one year or two years to get their money back. They are raising fares because of the devaluation of their money. They look at the length it takes them to get their money.
“The government is addressing that issue now. Our airlines do not have enough aircraft to service many of the routes they have been designated under the reciprocal right given to them under the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) to service many routes,” he said.
“If for instance, BA is doing 14 frequencies to Nigeria every week and United Nigeria and Air Peace are doing 14 flights to the UK, prices will crash. Why can’t they do it? It is because they don’t have access to aircraft while BA has access to airplanes at a single-digit interest rate”.
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