Amidst growing concerns about the state of the Nigerian aviation industry and the unpredictability of domestic airline operations, industry bigwigs are geared up for the premier aviation sector discussion forum to discuss the seeming challenges and proffer solutions to the sector’s disturbing trends.
The event, the 28th edition of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) Annual Conference taking place on Friday, 26th July will see Festus Keyamo, the minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, lead Chief Executive Officers of government agencies, airline operators and other stakeholders at the brainstorming sessions taking place at the Providence Hotel, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.
Keyamo, who confirmed his participation, alongside other industry major stakeholders affirmed that the leading aviation industry gathering will allow him to exchange ideas with operators, business owners and others on how the country’s aviation sector can survive amidst the prevailing macro-economic environment.
According to him, “the challenges before us and the industry are not insurmountable. We need to come together, especially at the LAAC conference. It gives us the best opportunity to dissect the challenges one after the other and agree on the steps to take to reach and achieve our goals.
“I urge stakeholders to come with open and progressive minds and let us take a good look at the sector which we all know has great potential to boost the GDP of our dear country and open doors of employment opportunities for our teaming population of unemployed professionals.”
Albinus Chiedu, the Secretary of the LAAC Conference Planning Committee, in a statement, explained that Keyamo will serve as special Guest of Honour while Thomas Ogungbangbe, the Chief Executive Officer of CITA Group, will chair the proceedings.
Stakeholders described the theme of the conference: ‘AVIATION SURVIVABILITY AMIDST A CHALLENGING MACRO-ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT.’ as timely against the background of the challenging state of Nigeria’s economy which amplified the already existing constraints to growth and development of Nigeria’s aviation in form of poor access to forex, a weakening currency, high fuel costs, maintenance costs, poor airports infrastructure, regulatory constraints, growing manpower demands, technology upgrade, passenger comfort, among other issues that require urgent attention.
According to Albinus, Umar Farouk, the Managing Director of Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), will deliver the keynote speech while Samuel
Caulcrick, a Former Rector of Nigeria College of Aviation Technology, (NCAT), Zaria, and Alex Nwuba, the Second Vice President, of the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI), will present papers on topical issues.
According to him, a panel session is expected to be moderated by Hamisu Yadudu, a former Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), with Chris Najomo, Director General, of Civil Aviation, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Olubunmi Kuku, the Managing Director/Chief Executive of FAAN and Wale Babalakin, Chairman, of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL) are discussants.
