FG urged to designate Air Peace, Aero/Arik as Flag Carriers in 2025

…free Aero, Arik from AMCON management

As year 2025 is fast rolling in, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has been urged to discard the idea of establishing a national air carrier but considering merger of Aero and Arik as a flag carrier to fly regional and continental routes while Air Peace to fly intercontinental route

For easy merger of Aero and Arik, the minister is also urged to free the two airlines from the management of Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) and carry out thorough audits of their assets.

Group Captain John Ojikutu, a retired officer from Nigerian Air Force, advised the minister while sharing his expectations for Nigeria’s aviation industry in 2025 with PortNews over the weekend.

According to Ojikutu who is the CEO of Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, “the minister already has a plan for the establishment of a national carrier but the nation does not need a national carrier rather flag carriers. He should discard this idea completely for at least two flag carriers, one for regional and continental and the other intercontinental.

“The minister should end the management of Aero and Arik by AMCON and merge the two airlines to fly for regional and continental routes as flag carriers while Air Peace fly intercontinental route as a fly carrier. However, a thorough economic Audits should be done on their assets and liabilities both local and international. Invite credible local and foreign investors to buy (25%) shares and the Nigerian public through the capital market 30% shares, Federal Government and States not having more than 10%  and the balance of 35% for the airlines owners.

“For the flag carriers to effectively compete with foreign airlines on all the routes covered by all Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) signed by the country, we must restrict foreign airlines to Lagos or Abuja and not Lagos and Abuja and additional one from the alternative geographical location to the airport of their first choice. However, anyone of them can make multiple frequencies of flights to the airports of their choices. The foreign airlines and the domestic airlines can interline to transport transit passengers to connect from the domestic airports of their choice to the international connecting airports.

Ojikutu said the aims of the restrictions to foreign airlines and interlining with domestic airlines is to create additional domestic markets for the domestic airlines.

To further boost the capacity of federal airports in 2025, Ojikutu called for grading of all airports in the country, believing that this will enhance competition and end redundancy.

“The federal airports should grade graded in categories of A, B, C, D and E. A should charge 100% (maximum) for services provided, while B, C, D and E should respectively charge 75%, 50%, 25% and 10% of the category A. The domestic airlines in particular and the international airlines can decide which of the airports is appropriate for their rates, fares, charges and their earnings.

“All the federal airports should be given out for concessions including the private airports that the ministry of aviation has taken over from states and private operators. It makes no economic sense for the ministry to take over private and state airports that are not viable with over 10 of the federal airports that are also not visible and believe they can be developed with the financial resources of Lagos and Abuja Airports.

“The Federal Government must concession each of the international airports with at least four of the domestic airports. However, the concession must be the non-aeronautical services only and not the aeronautical services which are the government obligations to ICAO, Flights Safety and Security. The non Aeronautical services which are mainly the Passengers terminal buildings, Cargo Terminals, carparks, tollgates land and office rents, hangers, etc are not areas of concern to ICAO. Bicourtney MM2 was built from ground zero and non of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) domestic terminals is comparable to that terminal today, sentiment apar,” he said.

Speaking further on his expectations, Group Captain Ojikutu said “there is urgent need for the government to establish a National Air Traffic Control Services to be managed by the civil and the military authorities. The disconnect between the two led to the disastrous results of the 9/11. Most of our airports are joint-users and the airspace too are joint-users. Aviation Security must not be given to any of the public commercial agencies in the airports but relevant security agencies with a single line of control and administration. Anything short is to bring conflict. It is high time we act to the recommendation of ICAO of 2004 that Security Fences be built for our airports where the Perimeter Fences are not adequate to be upgraded into Security Fences.”

He said the idea of appointing non-aviation experts as heads of sensitive aviation agencies slows down growth, saying of the nation’s aviation industry never lacks competent hands who can drive its growth. “Stop bringing other management skills that are not relevant into the aviation industry operations which require international knowledge and skills. We have been doing this for over twenty years without progress. Let the inside professionals grow up to become directors and don’t kill their career progression.”