Review all existing air pacts, Aviation stakeholders tell Sirika

Following the appointment of Senator Hadi Sirika as substantive Minister of Aviation, stakeholders have tasked him to hit the ground running, saying he has just 24 months to write his name in gold.

President of Aviation Round table, an industry think-tank, Elder Gbenga Olowo advocated for three strong flag carriers structured along geopolitical, geo-economic zones – North, East, West Lines.

The airlines, he said, should have 25 aircrafts each at a growth rate of 2.5 per cent annually to compete strongly and achieve benefits latent in African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

For the airlines to succeed, Olowo also called for the review of existing bilateral air service agreements (BASAs) as a market intervention to protect the three carriers from foreign dominance.

He said there should be immediate reversal from all multiple entry points in Nigeria to single entry points.

“This is the necessary and sufficient condition for a viable and productive Aviation sector at Sirika’s second coming,” he said.

Olowo added, “I do not envy him for the arduous tasks ahead because he has said so much in the past four years and expectations are so high. These four years have no room for rhetorics. In fact 2019 is already gone and 2023 is election year.”

He said the Minister should deliver Airport concessioning as planned and engineer two to three Airport companies of Nigeria with the task of modern Terminal Buildings with installed High Technologies and functional car parks that will make Lagos, Abuja, Kano a formidable West African Hub by 2025. This is doable judging from the case study of Ghana within a span of 4 years.”