Lagos Aviation Academy students emerge IATA best performers in Nigeria

Lagos Aviation Academy (LAA), one of the fastest-growing aviation training institutions in Nigeria, has produced the Overall Best Performers in Nigeria during the January 2022 diet of the IATA (International Air Transport Association) Foundation in Travel & Tourism course and the IATA Managing the Travel Business Course.

This result comes as a testament to the Academy’s dedication to raising excellent aviation professionals. Michael Ozoalor made a distinction in the January 2022 diet of IATA Foundation in Travel & Tourism course and Oluwatosin Jolayemi, made a distinction in the January 2022 IATA Managing the Travel Business exams and both became IATA Overall Best Performer in Nigeria.

Lagos Aviation Academy in its almost five years of being in the aviation training space had produced IATA Best Performer in Nigeria in 2018, 2019, 2021 and most recently in January 2022.

Congratulating Michael and Tosin on their results, Ivica Kovacic, head of global partnerships and innovation at IATA Training said: “On behalf of IATA Training, I congratulate you on successfully completing the Foundation in Travel and Tourism with Amadeus course and acknowledge you as the student with the best performance in your country for the January 2022 exam session.

“As our Best Performer, feel free to use this recognition as a reference in any future job application. IATA Training will gladly act as a referrer in your career journey.”

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Bankole Bernard, academy director at Lagos Aviation Academy and chairman Association of Approved Aviation Training Organisations in Nigeria, while delivering a speech at the award ceremony held at the academy, spoke on the need to properly enlighten the general public on how to identify a standard aviation training school.

He said: “In Nigeria today, we have too many mushroom training schools scattered all over the place. Sadly, a lot of people cannot differentiate between the standard schools and the mushroom schools. This is one area the regulators should also pay attention to in order for us to have seasoned professionals joining the next generation industry players.”

Also congratulating the students on their success, Bankole Bernard added: “We are proud of your achievement, this surely is a reward of hard work and excellent performance. You have not only made yourself proud but you have made Lagos Aviation Academy proud too with this feat.

“This is the fifth of its kind in our five years of operations and we are poised to reproduce similar results as we go on. Our resolve remains that we will continue to deliver the best training experiences to all our students and prospects.”

Efetobo Awhana, the Founder of the Nigeria Travel Week, while delivering a keynote message on ‘Travel & Tourism: An Untapped Goldmine in Nigeria’ noted that some of the real problems of tourism in Nigeria include orientation and awareness, policy and funding as well as destination marketing. He added that other common excuses include infrastructure, visas and security.

While addressing the awardees and participants at the ceremony, he said: “To drive travel & tourism in Nigeria we need to commit more to learning and development. As players, we need to enlighten our sphere and also join the campaign in promoting Nigeria as a tourism destination”.

Chinasa Mbene, the general manager at Lagos Aviation Academy, noted that the Academy’s passion for building competence has produced these awesome results over the years.

The best performers also expressed their joy on becoming the Overall Best in Nigeria and they both attributed their successes to hard work and the support received from Lagos Aviation Academy. Also in attendance were representatives of the Academy’s partners on student internships.

The partners included representatives from Finchglow Travels, Finchglow Holidays, Travelden, FCM Nigeria, Satguru and Top Travel Trips who came bearing gifts for the awardees.