FG suspends Nigeria Air, airport concession plans

Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Growth, Festus Keyamo, has introduced that every one ongoing plans for Nigeria’s Nationwide service ( Nigeria Air) operations and airport concessions have been quickly suspended.

Mr Keyamo disclosed this throughout an inspection tour of services on the Lagos airport on Thursday, an announcement issued Friday by the ministry’s Head of Public Affairs, Odutayo Oluseyi, mentioned.

“On concessioning of the airports and Nigeria air undertaking, the Minister mentioned all shall be placed on maintain (suspended) till he briefs Mr. President on his findings,” the assertion mentioned.

Mr Keyamo mentioned as a lot as he’s prepared to guard the native airways, he expects them to be extra environment friendly and efficient, noting that problems with flight cancellation and delays shall be seemed into and legal guidelines enforced the place mandatory.

The Minister additional directed the elimination of unserviceable plane by the homeowners.

The transfer to droop Nigeria air deliberate operation and concession of airports got here lower than two weeks after Mr Keyamo was sworn in as Aviation Minister and fewer than 4 months after his predecessor, Hadi Sirika, unveiled the controversial airline in Might.

Background

After a number of failed guarantees, Mr Sirika launched Nigeria’s nationwide service, Nigeria Air, lower than three days earlier than leaving workplace.

The event additional heightened issues amongst Nigerians, as many took to social media to query the transfer and Mr Sirika’s dealing with of the airline’s proposed operation. The Home of Representatives Committee on Aviation later referred to as for the suspension of the institution of Nigeria Air and for the prosecution of these concerned within the unveiling of the nationwide service, describing the train as a “ fraud”.

Equally, lower than two weeks to the top of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure, the Federal Govt Council (FEC) accepted the concession of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Worldwide Airport (NAIA), Abuja, and Mallam Aminu Kano Worldwide Airport (MAKIA), Kano, to the Corporacion American Airport Consortium.

ALSO READ: Hadi Sirika and Nigeria Air: Understanding the failure of the Buhari administration, By Jibrin Ibrahim

This was faulted by the Nigerian Senate in July throughout the plenary presided over by the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin. By the settlement on the concession, Corporacion America Airports Consortium will make an upfront cost of $7 million to run the Abuja airport for 20 years and $1.5 million for Kano airport for 30 years.

The full income from the concession of the 2 airports throughout the interval is estimated at over $4 billion.

Optimising FAAN’s income capability

Based on the assertion, Mr Keyamo mentioned that the federal government plans to optimise the producing capability of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

“60% income of FAAN comes from Lagos and as such the brand new terminal needs to be used optimally,” the assertion mentioned.

The minister defined that the airport’s new terminal has 60 check-in factors and may accommodate a lot visitors.

He mentioned that the outdated terminal ought to endure a whole overhaul, noting that the central cooling system just isn’t working, and a number of dilapidation must be fastened.

Based on the assertion, Mr Keyamo directed that every one airways within the outdated terminal ought to transfer their check-in counters to the brand new terminal inside three months.

“To present house for the growth of the brand new terminal to accommodate greater plane, Keyamo mentioned he’ll talk about with homeowners of personal hangers throughout the house for doable relocation of their hangers,” the assertion mentioned.