‘Nigeria/Qatar BASA MoU: Good politics but bad economics’

Former director-general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Harold Demuren, has described the current Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) signed between the Federal Government and Qatar as good politics but bad economics.

Demuren said this Wednesday at the quarterly Aviation Safety Round Table (ASRT) breakfast meeting, where he said that the BASA was good politics for the Federal Government and the state of Qatar, but was bad for the Nigerian economy.

The former NCAA boss said that Qatar had an airline – Qatar Airways, which currently has seven frequencies into Nigeria, and that no Nigerian airlines fly to Doha, saying that with the BASA, the airline would demand for more frequencies and more entry points into Nigeria.

“Nigeria does not fly to Doha at the moment, and as a result may not be able to reciprocate and this makes the agreement one sided,” Demuren said.

He said that to make matters worse, those countries Nigeria had BASA agreement with would no longer pay royalties for flying into the country.

According to Demuren, presently, Nigeria airlines cannot compete with Qatar Airways in terms of equipment, personnel, and maintenance, and in other areas.

“I am not saying that we should not sign BASA. What I am saying is that if we must sign BASA, we must know the content of the BASA we are signing,” he said.

Speaking earlier, Andrew Okunuga, managing director of defunct Nigeria Airways, advised that Nigeria should not spend so much energy on frequency but what would favour Nigeria.

Okunuga stated that BASA should not be discussed in isolation, adding that BASA also include joint venture, code share, among others, adding that what the Federal Government should do was to encourage Nigeria domestic airlines to make them international players in the aviation market.

“Arik Air and Medview Airlines should have been present when the latest BASA with Qatar was signed and the Federal Ministry of Aviation,” Okunuga said.