Ahead of the expected resumption of domestic flight operations next month, aviation authorities are considering a phased reopening of the airspace, Daily Trust reports.
The Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Capt. Musa Nuhu, gave this hint on Thursday just as airlines demanded that any intervention to the sector must be targeted at job retention.
The DG spoke at a webinar organised by an aviation think-tank group, Aviation Roundtable and Safety Initiative (ART) with the theme, “COVID-19: The Challenges and Opportunity for Nigeria’s Aviation Value Chain, During and Post.”
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Also on the panel were the Chairman of Air Peace, Mr. Allen Onyema; a former DG of NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren and Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu; and the Chief Accounting Officer of Dana Air, Obi Mbanuzuo, among others.
The NCAA and NAMA bosses at the webinar put forward the proposal for resuming domestic travel with four or five airports as part of measures to ensure airports do not spread the virus.
The NCAA DG said: “We may resume domestic operations with four or five airports and we expand as we get better.
“We don’t want to rush everything at the same time and get it choked up…
“If you do that, extra expenses and airlines need money, every money is important and we cannot achieve the two metres physical distance but we are hopeful in the next few days we can resolve that…”
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Nuhu added that stakeholders comprising airlines, ground handlers and service providers had put forward relevant recommendations for the safe resumption of flights to the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, for approval.
Empty middle seats in aircraft ‘may not work’
Chairman of Air Peace, Chief Onyema, who spoke from airline operators’ perceptive, said intervention from government must be targeted at ensuring jobs are protected in the country.
He said the government must consider a review of the 37 charges paid by the operators even as he said suggestions in some quarters for middle seats to be omitted inside the aircraft may not work.
“I do not want free money that I cannot account for.
“This is not an opportunity to ask for money to buy a new plane.
“In fact, this intervention should be for the work force.
“I have over 3, 000 staff at Air Peace, these people’s livelihoods are endangered and you must do everything possible to keep jobs in the country.
“We should be asking the government for specific things that would help retain jobs, job retention should be first and foremost.”
Also speaking, the Chief Accountable Officer of Dana Air, said: “We need simulators available locally; we should start thinking of how to get this done, individually as airlines or collectively.
“We spend a lot of forex in training abroad, maintenance is done abroad with forex, this will not help us and so we have to collaborate.”
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