FG promises to end high mortality rate of Nigerian airlines

…Air Peace soaring high after 10yrs – Keyamo

Festus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, says President Bola Tinubu’s administration will put to an end the high mortality rate of airlines that has defined the Nigerian aviation industry.

Keyamo spoke at the weekend during the 10th-anniversary celebration of West Africa’s largest operator, Air Peace, held in Lagos.

Addressing dignitaries from all walks of life who attended the event, the minister said Nigeria has a history of high mortality of airlines, noting that more than 100 airlines in the last 40 years had gone under. He said studies have shown that air travel in Nigeria has huge potential and with the right policies and actions, Nigeria would have the most successful airlines in Africa.

According to him, the Tinubu administration will frontally address this problem and bring it to an end by reviving what has been neglected over the past 40 years.

“This situation is worrisome. Let me tell you why it is a thing of worry. A recent study by Boeing says that Nigeria accounts for 80 percent of domestic travel in the whole of Africa. Not West Africa, not Central Africa, but the whole of Africa.

“The busiest route in the whole of Africa is the Lagos-Abuja route; that is, in the entire Africa. I think it is followed by Johannesburg-Cape Town. But Nigeria is number one in terms of domestic travel.

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“We have the population, we have the traffic, we have the people. So, it is surprising that if we have this traffic, if we have this domestic traffic, why are the airlines not surviving? Ask yourself. Why are they not surviving? And together, since we came to the office, I have sat down with operators to solve this problem and I listened to them,” he said.

Keyamo, however, said that it has become reassuring that a Nigerian carrier, Air Peace, has defied this high mortality phenomenon, which happens on airlines after 10 years of operation, but in the case of Air Peace, everything is looking up, indicating that it will be a great carrier of the future.

“And then here you have Air Peace, after 10 years, still looking strong, still looking healthy, and actually on the rise rather than on the decline. I remember in the last few months, just like a couple of our local airlines, I have approved a number of international routes for Air Peace.

“As I speak with you, Air Peace is a proud ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As a government, we are proud to support our local airlines.

“We are proud to support Air Peace in particular because they fly our flag very high all over the world. Air peace is threatening the world right now. They are rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest airlines in the world. And that is from a local entrepreneur here.

As a minister, I am proud to be associated, more associated with the local airlines than the foreign airlines because we have a duty to promote our own, and we must stand by our own,” he said.

Keyamo said that Nigeria was going to have a number of airlines coming up in the next few years that would operate domestic, sub-regional, continental and international services.

“We are going to have them. We got a letter yesterday (on Thursday), a beautiful letter, inviting all of us to Ireland in January. We have not received that type of letter in Nigeria for a long time. And guess what?

“Because of what we have done in the last few months since we came to office, the collection of the greatest and the leading lessors in the world of financiers, aircraft financiers and lessors have invited all of us to a meeting in Ireland in January.

“The letter said I should come with all of them. They want to start this discussion at the highest level with Nigerian operators, the business of aircraft leasing and financing. You are on the right path. And all thanks to people like Allen Onyema,” Keyamo said.