Domestic airlines, operating under the umbrella of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), have called on the Federal Government to exercise caution in rolling out the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), arguing that the policy is skewed against Nigeria’s national interests.

SAATM, also referred to as Africa’s open-skies initiative, is a project of the African Union (AU) aimed at enhancing air travel within the continent, reducing ticket costs, and stimulating economic development by eliminating restrictions on air transport services.

AON’s spokesperson, Professor Obiora Okonkwo, cautioned the government against granting profitable routes to foreign airlines, stressing that Nigerian carriers presently do not have the capacity to compete, particularly with dominant regional operators such as Ethiopian Airlines.

Okonkwo spoke at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, National Aviation Conference 2025 themed: ‘Elevating the Nigerian Aviation Industry through Investment, Partnership and Global Engagements,’ held in Lagos.

His words: “We think that SAATM is good, no doubt about it, but our circumstances have not prepared Nigeria operators effectively for SAATM, especially at this time. Considering the aero-politics and aero-economics, government is supposed to be careful and we must be protected.

“The target for the whole SAATM in Africa is Nigeria. If you have operators like Ethiopian Airlines that operate multiple entry points in and out of Nigeria, and 80 per cent of the passengers departing from here to Ethiopia continue onward to other destinations, how many passengers am I going to carry from here to Ethiopia in the reciprocity arena?

“As operators, we have been deprived of the opportunity, because for many years, we were on a total blacklist of lessors around the world, for no sin of ours. We could not lease any aircraft on dry lease. It is either we buy aircraft outrightly or SMI, which required that we pay like three times higher than any other country.

“With the efforts of this government, the minister, we are out of it (blacklist). We need about the next two, three years to normalise things, and then we will be ready for SAATM. But before that, we are asking government to be careful. We need to be protected. They must not give the routes that will make us viable to someone else because if the person mops up all the passengers, then we cannot even start. When that happens, it is capital flight.”