Stakeholders in the aviation sector have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently abolish the multiple entry points granted foreign carriers into Nigeria and also the renegotiation of Nigeria’s Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASA) with other countries.
The Multiple Designation clause in the BASA allows foreign airlines to fly to more than one destination in a country.
Thus, some of the major international airlines operating in Nigeria, such as British Airways, Air France, Ethiopian and EgyptAir, fly into two or three international terminals outside Lagos from their respective hubs.
Capt. Nogie Meggison, the Chairman, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), said all Nigerian domestic carriers might go bankrupt if the government failed to intervene urgently.
“We mentioned when Nigeria started multiple entry points for foreign carriers that within four years, there will be no domestic airline in Nigeria.
“If the government does not review the BASA agreement that it signed, we may have no aviation industry.
“The government needs to sit down and start to re-strategise or they will let the industry be run aground.
“Today, the two biggest carriers in Nigeria are seriously in financial trouble,” Meggison said.
Also, Capt. Dele Ore, the President, Aviation Round Table, faulted the Open Skies Agreement, Nigeria signed with the U.S. in 2001.
Ore said the agreement, which allows U.S. carriers to enter Nigeria through multiple points, had taken the job of domestic carriers and impoverished the airlines.
He said “there is a provision for amending the negotiation of the bilateral air service agreement which is very cumbersome.
“I think that we must renegotiate the bilateral air services agreement. If we do not do it, we will continue to see our airlines going bankrupt one by one.
“There must be a renegotiation which must be done by people who have the interest of the country at heart and people who have conscience,” Ore said.
On his part, Allen Onyema, the Chairman of Air Peace, said such lopsided policy was not in the best interest of indigenous carriers and the economy.
Onyema said it was unpatriotic to allow foreign carriers feed fat on lucrative routes in Nigeria under the cover of lopsided bilateral air services agreement.
He said “The first thing the Buhari administration should do is to review this policy of multiple entry points granted to foreign carriers into Nigeria.
” It is one of the missteps by government responsible for under development of the industry. If it continues, it is going to kill the domestic sector of the aviation industry.”
NAN
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