The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Barrister Festus Keyamo (SAN) has given the reasons why Federal Government encouraged the return of Emirates Airlines’ scheduled flight operations into Nigeria.
The Minister who spoke with journalists shortly after he arrived at Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos, aboard a flight operated by Emirates Airlines from Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Lagos, Nigeria on Wednesday, said it was for the benefits of Nigerian airlines who can now operate to any destination of choice in UAE without restrictions because of the new Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) entered into with the Middle East country.
Keyamo added that the travelling public would equally benefit because because it will bring about competition which will lead to fare reduction on Middle East routes.
“First of all, you have more options for indigenous carriers who are also flying to destinations in the Middle East and other lands. The first thing we did when we went to negotiate a new bilateral service agreement was to also secure the route for our local operators. And I’m sure you saw my statement last week. It was one of the major things I stood my ground on. And if you look at the new one, it said to any destination, so nobody is going to have to say, well, this is prime, this is not prime airport. Our agreement with them is they fly to any destination; we fly to any destination in the UAE. So it’s purely reciprocal in that respect. First of all, you know that we have a variety of choices now. We have more competition on different international routes now. That’s what it’s all about, is to ensure healthy competition, and healthy competition leads to competitive prizes for the benefit of the Nigerian people,” Keyamo said.
He stated that before the restoration of flight operations between the two countries, a new Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) that would allow airlines from the two countries to operate to any airport of choice in Nigeria and UAE has been entered into.
“And I’m sure you see that the tempo around is that people are excited, people are happy that we are restoring relationships with the UAE. And that is why I took all the pain to go back there, to sign a new BASA, I went there, we signed a new Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA). You know, redefining our relationship altogether again, making it healthier, making it more open, and for the benefits, especially of the Nigerian people, and I decided to accompany them there. But I’m sure you heard from them, the horses mouth and not me. They say they are back to stay, they are not going anywhere again, because I think the suspension hurt both sides. They felt it and we felt it. But now they are back.”
The Minister who also explained that restoring relationships with major partners who had left Nigeria has been a major pillar of President Tinubu’s economic policy, said “Well, all thanks to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who actually made this possible. When he came into office, he made it clear that he would like to restore relationships with most of the major partners and countries around the world.
“As a government, we identified the UAE as a major and important partner and country that we should restore our relationship with. The relationship went downhill before, you know, with suspension of visas, suspension of their flights. And for Nigerians, it was especially damaging because we know that Nigerians have a lot of investments in the UAE, they have a lot of interest and investments with you. So eventually, it was not an adventure in self-glorification, it was actually a fight for the people of Nigeria, especially.”
On the benefits indigenous carriers would drive from the return of Emirates Airlines operations into the country, Keyamo said: “First of all, you have more options for indigenous carriers who are also flying to destinations in the Middle East and other lands
“The first thing we did when we went to negotiate a new bilateral service agreement was to also secure the route for our local operators. And I’m sure you saw my statement last week. It was one of the major things I stood my ground on. And if you look at the new one, it said to any destination, so nobody is going to have to say, well, this is prime, this is not prime airport. Our agreement with them is they fly to any destination; we fly to any destination in the UAE. So it’s purely reciprocal in that respect. First of all, you know that we have a variety of choices now. We have more competition on different international routes now. That’s what it’s all about, is to ensure healthy competition, and healthy competition leads to competitive prizes for the benefit of the Nigerian people.
“I’m sure you know, without mentioning an airline, when this was suspended, I’m sure you know that some other airlines ripped the benefits. Many of them increased their frequencies to Nigeria. Many of them increased their prizes because the seats were not available, flights were not available, and all of that. You also know that why we fought for this is that Dubai in particular is a major hub of the world. It links virtually every country of the world. I have not seen any major country, and I use that word advice as a major country, that is not linked from Dubai. So for Nigerian travelers, it is easy to access any part of the world by simply traveling to Dubai and connecting to that country. And for our airlines too, I can speak, I can tell you that we also secured some kind of code-sharing agreement. We told them that if they want to code-share, our airlines will have the right of first refusal. We said our local airlines will have the right of first refusal because there will be a lot of code-sharing in this respect now. And as I speak with you, they are speaking with many of our local operators. I went with some of them, I’m sure you saw some of them. Emirates is speaking with a lot of our local operators now, and that is also for the benefit of our local aviation industry.”
On the overall benefits of the new BASA signed with UAE, Keyamo explained: “We secured that any airport, in fact I will put it advisedly that we are also free to fly to any airport in the UAE. They have Charger, they have the Etihad, they also have the Dubai. That’s it. We insisted on that. So we have initiated the agreement, and I can bet you this is for the entire good of the Nigerian people. And coupled, of course, with the fact that we have gone around the world trying to restore confidence again in our aviation ecosystem and our leasing industry, the aircraft leasing industry. I’m sure you followed the last two weeks, I have not spoken too much about it, but I very soon I will expand more on it. About the confidence we are giving to the leasing world with the practice direction of the Cape Town Convention that we identified early in this administration, I identified early as a core, as a core to opening up the aviation industry in Nigeria. We have seen that our score, our compliance score has gone up tremendously and still rising because in the next few weeks we are also going to roll out the Edera, also, that will substantially increase our scores, our compliance scores. So all of that will combine to then empower our local operators to be able to service this route and also compete favorably with some of these big airlines that we are inviting into Nigeria. And more competition, less prices, and hey, everybody can, any major businessman can come together and float an airline. We want more airlines to come to Nigeria to fly locally, regionally and internationally.”
