Domestic airlines mull suit against Nigeria over multiple entries to foreign carriers

NIGERIAN DO MESTIC AIRLINES UNDER their umbrella organisation, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), are mulling the possibility of a lawsuit against the federal government of Nigeria for continuing to offer multiple entries to foreign airlines.

AON also declared that for any foreign airline or investors to invest in the new national carrier, it must deposit at least $200 billion with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to be sure of their seriousness, saying that no airline should use Nigeria as a dumping ground for unused aircraft.

The government has viewed the multiple entries given to airlines as being good economics to the foreign airlines, but regretted that it put pressure on the foreign exchange for Nigeria.

At the Q1 2022 Breakfast Business Meeting organised by the Aviation Round Table (ART) with the theme: ‘Economic Implications of Multiple Entry Points by Foreign Airlines Into Nigeria,” Yunusa Abdulmunaf, president of AON, said that the body has decided to challenge the government in the court of law on the current policy if multiple entries to airlines is not addressed.

Abdulmunaf, represented by Allen Onyema, vice president of AON, said that the body would in the next few days meet with Hadi Sirika, minister of AviaA tion, to deliberate on the issue.

He expressed confidence that the government would address the issue in the next 21 days, but said the body was not giving the government an ultimatum.

The AON president lamented that billions of naira are being lost annually to multiple designations granted the foreign carriers and warned that if the policy continued unabated the domestic airlines would die, while the foreign airlines would eventually take over the domestic market.

He insisted that the multiple designations is one of the greatest disservice to the Nigerian economy and its people.

The AON said: “All the foreign airlines that come into Nigeria, everyday the central bank governor cries about the amount of money being repatriated abroad. We are talking about the scarcity of foreign exchange in the country, but the foreign airlines are removing billions of dollars every year from this country, and airlines in Nigerians have been hassled with lots of requests on how to repatriate dollars into the system. Where am I going to get it from?

“Yet we are creating more avenues for these things to happen by giving multiple destinations to these foreign airlines. All the foreign airlines that come to this country, maybe about 20 or 30 of them, have not been able to employ more than 150 Nigerians.

“We keep on badmouthing Nigerian airlines, forgetting that we are the architects of our own undoing. Air Peace alone employs over 4,000 people directly. It would take foreign airlines another 60 years to generate 4,000 jobs. Yet Air Peace has to beg to be given rights to build a hangar in its own country, it has no land in its own country. No land for its assets and passengers. It didn’t start today,” he lamented.

Besides, Sirika appears to share the concerns expressed by the domestic operators when he said that multiple entries approval to foreign airlines causes capital flight from the country.

He has also said that this prevents the indigenous airlines from generating much revenues, and that it grows the economics of foreign airlines.

“Technically, it creates capital flight from Nigeria,” he has been quoted as saying.

Gabriel Olowo, president of ART, decried that foreign airlines are gradually taking over the domestic market with continuous approvals for multiple entries for foreign airlines.

“The damage of multiple entries into Nigeria is huge. Britain for instance has 21 flights into Nigeria weekly. European Unions have 43 frequencies every week into Nigeria. Also the Middle East has 56 flights weekly into multiple entries into Nigeria.

“As it is today, we have zero participation in the international sector as an industry and the domestic sector is eroded through multiple entries into Nigeria,” he said.