The Federal Government has reiterated its plan to establish a national carrier stating that Nigeria with its size certainly deserves a national carrier.
The permanent secretary, Ministry of Aviation, Mr Yemi Adelakum stated this in Lagos yesterday during a tour of Sky Catering Company Limited, a subsidiary of former Nigeria Airways where he queried the management of the company to explain why they leased its facility to First Nation Airways a domestic carrier, which operates from its premises.
The permanent secretary also lamented the fact that smaller African nations are positioning themselves as aviation hubs in the region with foreign airlines reaping immensely from their operations in Nigeria while many Nigerians remain unemployed.
He directed the management of the Sky Catering to forward to the ministry through, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, details of the approval for the use of the facility by the airline.
He challenged the management of the firm to ensure that it furnishes it with the relevant documents of the operation of the airline at its facility, which he described as unofficial.
He queried the audacity of the firm to collect money from the airline without remitting same to the ministry of aviation, the body supposedly in charge of supervising the firm.
He said:”We are trying to see how we can take aviation section to the next level, so we want to go back and see the wrongs of the past and see where we can correct them that is why we decided to come for this tour to see for ourselves what is on ground. In fact like here used to be Nigerian Airways property (Sky Power catering services) and we want to see what has become of it.
“The purpose is to take this sector to the next level so that all of us as Nigerians we can fly and be proud of the sector. “We are also looking at the possibility of bringing back our national carrier, if Gabon or Gambia can have their airways why not Nigeria?
“We are not doing magic but we want to start, if we start it today if we cannot complete it in the next six months somebody else will continue from where we stopped.”
“Safety and security first and foremost, we have to secure our airspace, we have to make our customers very comfortable, they have to be happy, bringing it up to the world standard, that is what we are looking at and particularly giving Nigeria as the West African hub.
“We can not be as big as this and allow Togo to take over the hub from us, it is not acceptable. And all the foreign airlines are making a lot of money out of Nigeria.
We are complaining about employment, this is an industry that can employ so many Nigerians, so we want to bring that back.”
He further said:”Well, there is a lot of improvement, we have seen some of the airports all the air conditions are working from what we have seen, those that are not working they are being repaired and we can see that customer service is being inaugurated.
” We have just started the digital service in the public service so that passengers having complain have a place to go and report.”
Speaking further on the proposed airline he said “It is going to be run as a commercial entity where you and I can be part owners of that organization, we have foreigners who have expertise, who have money, who have technical know-how to be partners in that. It is not going to be a government business like Nigeria Airways.”
It will be recalled that the plan to package a national carrier by former minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah did not succeed as the effort was not transparent enough.
On the issue of operating from Sky Catering premises, Managing Direcctor of First Nation. Airways said, his airline has a six years lease on the facility with valid papers.
