Again, FG urged to concession all airports, designate domestic airlines as Flag Carriers

Picture: Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Festus Keyamo (left) and Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, with some aviation stakeholders in Abuja recently

As we approach year 2025, Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has been counselled again to urgently concession all the national airports, including international ones, so as to optimize their performances and stop a systemic wastage of national revenue.

The minister is also counselled to designate two domestic airlines from the existing ones as Flag Carriers to fly regional/continental and the other intercontinental and do away with the idea of floating a national airline.

The minister should also ensure that the flag carriers are quoted on the Public Stock Market to give Nigerians the opportunity to invest in the commonwealth Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) routes.

A well-known aviation figure in Nigeria, Group Captain John Ojikutu, gave the counsel in a statement on the state of the nation’s aviation industry, particularly airport operations, which he made available to PortNews in Lagos last week.

Captain Ojikutu, a former Commandant of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, admonished the minister to compel the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to concentrate more on aeronautical services than non-aeronautical services.

Ojikutu to Festus Keyamo, “spend monies on aeronautical services and not on non-aeronautical services. Concession of all the airports will enhance their productivity against being used to siphon public money. As a matter of fact, the concession should be whole; not limited to only the international airports but all the Federal owned airports with each international airport going with at least four domestic airports.”

On the flag airlines, he said “I call on the minister to consider developing two flag carriers from the existing domestic airlines, one to fly regional and continental and the other intercontinental, to effectively compete with the foreign airlines on the BASA Routes and forget the idea of a National Carrier which political office holders want as Government Carrier only for their benefits when the Fly Nigeria Bill is established.

‘Each of the flag carriers must go into the Public Stock Market to give Nigerians the opportunity to invest in the Commonwealth BASAs. BASA is not for private airlines but national assets and for Nigerians.”

He urged Keyamo to restrict foreign airlines to either Lagos or Abuja and not anymore to Lagos and Abuja “but each can have additional airport from alternative geographical location to the airport of their choice. Ensure that each foreign airlines interline with the domestic airlines to transfer international passengers transiting to and from other airports to the airport of their international departure and return.”

While urging the government to face only its obligations to ICAO on safety and security and not commercial services, he advised the minster to stop institutional corruption that has ravaged the industry.