Minister of State for Aviation, Capt. Hadi Sirika
Strong indications emerged weekend that the federal government has started series of meetings with some countries in West and Central Africa to review airport charges on Nigerian airlines. Before now, several Nigerian airlines operating West Coast destinations had been complaining over what they describe as exorbitant charges by some countries in the sub-region and insisted that there must be uniform charges which will be in the spirit of the prevailing Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM).
Director of Consumer Protection at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Adamu Abdullahi confirmed the development to our correspondent weekend, saying the civil aviation authorities in the sub-region had met to review the charges.
According to him, “if the charges are not reviewed downward, Nigeria may be forced to apply the principles of reciprocity in the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA)”.
“Any country that levelled exorbitant charges on Nigerian airlines, Nigeria would reciprocate by doing same to airlines from same country.
“This issue is currently under discussion. The Director-Generals of the Civil Aviation Authority of these countries met, and the matter has been raised by the Director General of NCAA. This matter has been discussed and that is why our airlines are getting a better deal now,” Abdullahi averred.
Business Hilights recalls that in the last one month, two to three Nigerian airlines including Air Peace, Overland and other conducted several inaugural flights to West and Central African destination as part of service expansion drive following growing salutary investment climates within the region.
