Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has identified insufficient aircrafts as the primary reason for frequent flight cancellations and high ticket prices for local and international flights.
“I met with the people on the ground and asked them, and they told me that the money they pay to hire (rent) airplanes is too high.
“They call it wet lease, and the kind of airplanes they get are not the ones they can pay for in installments, why? It’s because the people who bring airplanes to Nigeria for business are afraid of Nigeria.”
“They said Nigeria is full of dishonest people, and anytime they bring their planes to Nigeria, if the people cannot pay, they cannot recover their planes,” Keyamo explained in a chat with British Broadcasting Corporation Pidgin on Saturday.
To address this issue, the government initiated a process to empower Nigerian airline operators to partner with foreign companies that manufacture airplanes.
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Keyamo emphasized the importance of the Cape Town Convention, which Nigeria signed to improve its aviation rating.
“I met with them around the world, and they told us to change our law called the Cape Town Convention, when you sign it, it means you are serious.
“The law we signed states that if anyone brings an airplane into Nigeria, if there’s a problem, the government will allow them to take their airplane back, we cannot hold it,” he said.
Keyamo expressed optimism that as more planes become available, ticket prices will decrease.
The Federal Government’s signing of the Cape Town Convention practice direction on September 12 enables domestic airline operators to access aircraft on dry lease, expanding funding opportunities and reducing costs for airlines.
