The Director General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Captain Usman Mukhtar said that foreign airlines are making fortunes in the Nigerian aviation industry while local airlines are still playing from the fringes.
He disclosed this while
presenting a keynote address at the 20th Annual Seminar of the League of
Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC). Mukhtar said: “In 2013, the total
value of tickets sold by domestic airlines was N73 billion. On the other hand,
the foreign airlines sold tickets worth N231 billion in the same year.
“Domestic airlines were
able to ferry 5 million passengers across Nigeria in 2013.On the West Coast
route,277,000 passengers were moved. In Intra-African route 437,000 passengers
and on the Intercontinental route 1.4 million passengers were airlifted.”
The NCAA D-G who was
represented by Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, the Director, Consumer Protection said
all these were achieved with the domestic airlines operating a total of 63,000
frequencies across the country while on the West Coast there were 4,000
frequencies, Intra-Africa 4,000, and intercontinental 7,300 frequencies.
He added that in
recognition of the increase in the volume of passengers, the Directorate of
Consumer Protection (DCP) has intensified efforts to process complaints
and ensure comfort of air travellers.
According to him, “Nigeria
has therefore become an attractive destination for foreign airlines and
ceaseless application for additional frequencies. At present Nigeria has
Bilateral Air Services Agreement, BASA, with 78 countries. However, some of
these are not being utilised. In order to strengthen and widen our BASA with
existing and new countries, Nigerian delegates will be attending an ICAO Air
Services Negotiation Conference (ICAN 2014) from 17th – 21st November 2014 at
Bali, Indonesia.”
Speaking on the impending
ICAO audit he said “the ICAO Audit conducted in a few years back, Nigeria
scored very high marks.
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