Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation and aerospace development, has proposed the ‘Fly Nigeria Act’ to empower domestic operators and grow the country’s aviation sector.
Keyamo unveiled the proposed Act during a stakeholders’
engagement on Friday.
The minister described the new legislation as a bold
initiative to support the country’s aviation industry, which he referred to as
a “vital pillar of the Nigerian economy.
“The Act’s primary focus is to ensure that Nigerian flag
carriers are given priority for all government-funded travel, whether domestic,
regional, or international,” he said.
“This prioritisation extends to connecting flights as well.
“If you are travelling to the US through London, and the
first leg of that trip has a Nigerian flag carrier flying the route, you must
use the Nigerian carrier for that leg before connecting to an international
carrier.”
Keyamo said the Act aims to create demand and market
opportunities, even for routes not currently operated by Nigerian carriers.
“By incentivising the development of such routes, the
proposed legislation seeks to establish a more robust and competitive aviation
market for the country,” he added.
Keyamo, while disclosing that the bill for the Fly Nigeria
Act has been proposed fifteen years ago, queried why it didn’t get the needed
support.
‘GLOBAL CONSPIRACY, AEROPOLITICS TAUNTED NIGERIA’S AVIATION
SECTOR’
He also said there was a global conspiracy to taunt the
growth of the aviation sector in Nigeria and Africa.
“We want to ensure that local operators that are so many
because of our population, our size and our traffic survive [and] have the right
environment in which they can operate,” the minister said.
“And after we encourage our flag carriers, then we can begin
to talk about national carriers if need be at that time because the local
airlines are representing us well now and flying our flags all over the world.”
“There’s always aeropolitics all over the world. It’s not
something we say in whispers. It’s a fact that the world is always involved. So
many countries and people are involved in global aeropolitics.
“For a country that is as big as Nigeria, they want to feed
on our traffic with their airlines and ensure that our domestic airlines do not
grow
“It is for us, as a government, to be wise enough to see
this and ensure that we make policies to ensure fair competition.
“This bill was taken to council more than 15 years ago and
yet it did not see the light of day. It tells you that there’s a certain
external cabal in the aviation industry that seeks to destroy our indigenous
markets so that they can come and feed on that market. It’s a global conspiracy
but you have to be smart to see it.
“All the foreign airlines in the world feed on the African
markets without the competition of African airlines and they will ensure that
the aviation markets in Africa remain taunted.
“Especially in a big country like Nigeria, they will ensure
that it remains taunted so that they will continue to feed on your markets.
“We thank the foreign airlines for their partnership but at
the same time, I’m saying that we must also develop our own to compete fairly.
We just want to compete fairly.”
Keyamo expressed optimism that the Act would also open
opportunities for more routes and attract lessors.
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