Keyamo Promises to Further Raise Global Rating of Nigeria’s Aviation Industry

•Justifies nullification of Nigeria Air project

Chinedu Eze

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has promised that the Bola Tinubu administration would further elevate the already high rating of Nigeria air transport sector to make it easier and cheaper for Nigerian carriers to lease aircraft and pay less premium on insurance.

He said that this will enable airlines acquire more aircraft, build capacity to meet demand, which will subsequently bring down airfares, eliminate flight cancellation and delays.

The Minister, who also described the suspended Nigeria Air project with Ethiopian Airlines as parasitic, made this known during prime time interview on Arise TV yesterday, and gave details about how Nigeria was able to secure 70.5 global rating from almost 49 rating on Cape Town Convention.

Last month, the Aviation Working Group (AWG), scored Nigeria high and commended the Minister for the decision of the Federal Government to fully comply with the Cape Town Convention by signing the Practice Direction on dry-leasing of aircraft.

Reacting to what Nigeria has done that prompted AWG to swiftly adjust the global score/rating of Nigeria on her compliance status from 49 to 70.5, the Minister said that Nigeria’s rating would go up further after signing IDERA, which is at the point of being signed.

IDERA is Irrevocable Deregistration and Export Request Authorisation, which empowers lessors to get their aircraft deregistered from the registry of the country where the lessee is based, repossess them and fly them out.

Keyamo explained that when this is signed a lessor can recover its aircraft from Nigerian operator within five days, if there is any disagreement between the domestic carrier and the lessor and this would be facilitated by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

 “As I speak to you today the document has been drafted and I have gone through it. After the final draft it will be signed and that will take Nigeria from the current 70.5 to over 80 in the rating.

 “ This will enable airlines to acquire aircraft and when they have enough operating aircraft, flight cancellation and delays will drastically reduce. The major challenge we have is that we do not have capacity and that is why we cannot compete with these international airlines like Air France, Lufthansa. We are not utilizing our reciprocity because we do not have enough operating aircraft,” the minister said.

On aircraft maintenance facility, which is Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO), the minister said that government is inviting private investors on a Public, Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement, but noted that that Akwa Ibom has built a maintenance facility, which is almost 90 per cent completed for the maintenance of narrow body aircraft, adding that Airbus has indicated that it would support the facility.

The minister said that if Nigeria has major MRO facility it would be very viable because there is a large market for it both in West and Central Africa, remarking that it would help domestic carriers, which face challenge of delays when they ferry their aircraft overseas for maintenance.

He added that as they fly their aircraft overseas for checks, the number of their fleet continue to shrink, as they maximize available equipment, few aircraft servicing many routes, leading to flight cancellations and flight delays.

Keyamo defended the policy of the Tinubu administration in the aviation industry, which is to protect local airlines, empower them and make them profitable in addition to the other agenda of the administration.

He also said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Ministry of Aviation are working together to help Nigerian airlines overcome the forex challenge and commended CBN for providing foreign airlines their funds, which were trapped in Nigeria, but the Tinubu administration released the funds to the foreign carriers and put to an end that controversy.

On the reason why the federal government suspended Nigeria Air project and later the court ruled on it, Keyamo said that his concern was that the process was not transparent and explained that Ethiopian Airlines owned by Ethiopian government came to take over the lucrative Nigerian Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) routes. They will have pe-eminence over the highly priced routes, pointing out that the key executives in the planned Nigeria Air were Ethiopians.

 “They planned to operate both international and domestic routes and there was tax waiver for all the Ethiopian executives. They wanted to kill our domestic airlines. One of their foreign partners said that we missed foreign direct investment with the suspension of the Nigeria Air deal, but they were not bringing in any money.

 “They gave us aircraft on wet lease and Nigeria would have paid them about $400 million for the leases. Under the Tinubu administration there is a significant shift in policy. Our policy is to build, empower our people to get to the same level like other big carriers,” he said.

On airport concession, he said that this time workers will be carried along and the process would be transparent and the best airport managers in the world would be sourced under the PPP arrangement.