The federal government says it will introduce a slot system
in regulating the operation of foreign airlines into Nigeria.
Musa Nuhu, director-general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation
Authority (NCAA), disclosed this while speaking with journalists on Monday in
Lagos.
This development comes amid the lingering diplomatic rift
between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He said the slot system would eliminate “unfair commercial
advantage” in the implementation of the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA)
with other countries.
Nuhu said the new system, which he described as “tit for
tat”, has become imperative because some countries were deploying the slot
allocation systems at their airports as a ploy to undermine Nigerian carriers.
“Believe me, we are working on that, and it is going to be
tit-for-tat. Let me use an example, and I am not saying that is what we are
going to do, but just as an example. If a Nigerian airline is going to the
United Kingdom and they insist that the Nigerian airline must buy slots, then
any British Airlines that is coming into Nigeria will need to pay for slots
too. It is tit-for-tat,” Nuhu said.
“If you tell me a particular airline from Nigeria cannot go
to Heathrow because you cannot get slots, then their airlines too cannot come
into Lagos because of slot issues. If you tell me a particular airline from
Nigeria must pay, for instance, 100,000 pounds to operate to Heathrow, then,
their own airline will have to pay the same amount of money to operate to
Lagos. It is going to be reciprocity.
“We cannot hide under the issue of slots to give unfair
commercial advantages to foreign airlines over Nigerian airlines. We have made
mistakes in the past, we have learned from our mistakes, and we are going to
correct them.
“Lagos Airport was built for less than 300,000 passengers in
1979, and the airport is doing more than 8 million passengers annually now, and
you are telling them your airport is doing above capacity, Lagos Airport is
doing far above 1,000 percent capacity. It is no longer acceptable. No one
should come here and give us stories.”
On the resumption of Emirates’ flights to Nigeria, he said
the carrier would not be cleared until civil aviation authorities in the UAE
officially communicated the extra airport slots granted to Air Peace.
“It is important to have all these officially. So, the
Nigerian Government is ready to allow the operations to start through the
proper diplomatic channel. The Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs has written
to the Foreign Affairs of UAE to confirm officially if the letter was from
them. Then, we will see where we go from there. It is important to have
fairness, transparency. and equity,” the NCAA DG said.
“The government needs
to protect Nigerian businesses, and Air Peace is one of the designated carriers
from Nigeria. If we allow other airlines to come and take all the juicy slots,
we are shooting ourselves in the leg.”
“They have said Air Peace can operate to UAE, but we want it
to be made available to us officially. Once this is done, their airline can
resume operations as they requested.”
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