AON Threatens to Sue FG over Multi Entry Points Granted to Foreign Airlines

Chinedu Eze

Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has threatened to sue the federal government over its policy of allowing foreign airlines to access multiple airports in the country.

The operators insisted that allowing each foreign carrier to operate to more than one airport in Nigeria enhances their repatriation of foreign currency and also shrinks the market for domestic carriers.

The body also stated that for any foreign airline or investor to invest in the new national carrier, it must deposit at least $200 billion with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to be sure of its seriousness, saying that no airline should use Nigeria as a dumping ground for unused aircraft.

AON was reacting to federal government’s explanation that the multiple entries to foreign airlines was a good economic decision, but regretted that it put pressure on the foreign exchange for Nigeria.

Speaking at the Q1 2022 Breakfast Business Meeting organised by the Aviation Round Table (ART) with the theme: ‘Economic Implications of Multiple Entry Points by Foreign Airlines into Nigeria,” President of AON, Alhaji Yunusa Abdulmunaf, said the body had decided to challenge the government in the court of law on the current policy on multiple entries to foreign airlines if not reviewed.

Abdulmunaf who was represented at the occasion by the Vice President of AON, Mr. Allen Onyema, said the body would in the next few days meet with the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, to deliberate on the issue.
He expressed confidence that the government would address the issue in the next 21 days, but stressed that the body was not giving the government an ultimatum.

The AON President lamented that billions of naira were being lost annually to multiple designations granted the foreign carriers and warned that if the policy continued unabated the domestic airlines might suffer, while the foreign airlines would eventually take over the domestic market.

He insisted that multiple designation was a great disservice to the Nigerian economy and its people.
The AON said: “All the foreign airlines that come into Nigeria, every day the Central Bank Governor cries about the amount of money being repatriated abroad. We are talking about scarcity of foreign exchange in the country, but the foreign airlines are removing billions of dollars every year from this country, and airlines in Nigerians have been hassled with lots of requests on how to repatriate dollars into the system. Where are we going to get it from?
“Yet we are creating more avenues for these things to happen by giving multiple destinations to these foreign airlines. All the foreign airlines that come to this country, maybe about 20 or 30 of them have not been able to employ more than 150,000 Nigerians.

“We keep on badmouthing Nigerian airlines, forgetting that we are the architects of our own undoing. Air Peace alone employs over 4,000 people directly. It would take foreign airlines another 60 years to generate 4,000 jobs. Yet Air Peace has to beg to be given rights to build a hangar in its own country, it has no land in its own country. No land for its assets and passengers. It didn’t start today.”

The Minister of Aviation had explained in his presentation that multiple entry points were granted to foreign airlines based on the nature of their Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs), noting that it expands the business and grows the economy of foreign airlines.

“It also generates revenue for the country as foreign airlines are able to land at different airports connecting different area of the country to foreign countries thereby promoting commercial trade, tourism and friendly relations.

“The grant of entry into more than two airports in Nigeria exposes foreign airlines to domestic routes and therefore into the domestic markets of the domestic airline and this has its negative implications. It is a capital flight against the country,” Sirika said.

He added that this prevents the indigenous airlines from generating more revenues, rather grows the economies of foreign airlines.

 Also, the President of ART Dr. Gabriel Olowo complained that foreign airlines were gradually taking over the domestic market with continuous approvals for multiple entries by the federal government.