The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has threatened to sue the Federal Government over multiple entry points granted to foreign airlines, saying the gesture is ripping off the country of its foreign exchange potential.
The President of the association, Airline, gave this hint on Thursday at the association’s first quarter breakfast business meeting organised by the Aviation Round Table (ART) with the theme ‘Economic Implications of Multiple Entry Points by Foreign Airlines into Nigeria’ in Lagos.
Abdulmunaf, who was represented at the forum by the Vice President of AON, Allen Onyema, said the body would meet with the aviation minister to deliberate on the issue as sustaining the policy will give the foreign carriers competitive advantage in the market.
He said: “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 whereas, airlines in the country 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 150,000 Nigerians”, Abdulmunaf added.
The AON chief noted that Air Peace alone employed over 4,000 direct workers, stressing that to it will take the foreign airlines another 60 years to achieve that feat
Similarly, President of ART, Gabriel Olowo, lamented that foreign airlines were progressively taking over the domestic market with continuous approvals for multiple entries to them, adding that the damage to the domestic carriers cannot be quantified.
According to him, “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”, Olowo added
He maintained that as things remained now, Nigeria cannot compete favourable in the international sector of the industry even as the domestic airlines’ competitiveness is being vitiated by multiple entry grants to foreign airlines.
Meanwhile, Minister of Aviation justified the government’s position during the meeting in Lagos.
Sirika, who was represented by the Chief Executive Officer, Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, Group Capt. John Ojikutu, maintained that the foreign carriers’ entries would help domestic airlines to improve their distribution and connection opportunities.
In addition, he pointed out that the policy measure had the potential of opening up prospects to domestic airlines and also improving their market by distributing passengers for connection
The minister recalled that the granting of multiple entry points to foreign airlines into the country had been an issue of contention in the industry over the years.
