Nigeria’s Aviation News Headlines for Friday September 9, 2016.
It’s good to be here today.
Privatising the major
airports in Nigeria is a viable option in order to maximise the position of Nigeria
as a hub in West Africa and Government is ready to implement that decision.
Find the headlines below and follow the links to read the
story in full.
Concession: Why FAAN Cannot Manage 17 Airports
Stakeholders in the aviation sector have
expressed doubt about the ability of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria
(FAAN) to manage 17 airports if the four major
ones were given out in concession as planned.
According to Thisday only the four major airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port
Harcourt are generating the revenues that are being used to maintain the
remaining 17 airports.
In
2015, Nigeria’s four major airports – Murtala Muhammed International (MMIA),
Lagos, the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, the Nnamdi Azikiwe
International Airport, Abuja and the Port Harcourt International Airport
generated over N32billion and the money
expended on their maintenance was put at over N14 billion.
During the said period, the other 17 airports
also under the management of the FAAN, generated over N1.4billion but over N6billion
was said to have been used to maintain them.
What
this meant was that FAAN had to plough part of the revenues earned from the
four major airports to maintain the other 17 airports.
With
the federal government’s move to concession the four major airports which are
the bedrock of the agency’s revenues, it is feared that FAAN may not be able to
generate money to maintain these airports.
Government to Okay Historic Aviation Carbon Agreement
Current CEO of IAATA, Alexandre de Juniac. Photo credit :www.iata.org |
The draft negotiating text for CORSIA, published on 2 September 2016, broadly aligns with the aviation industry’s call for a mandatory global carbon offset scheme as a tool to help manage the industry’s emissions as it pursues its goal of carbon-neutral growth.
Instead of being mandatory from the start, however, the draft text defines a voluntary “pilot and implementation” period (2021-2026) after which participation would be mandatory for all eligible States (2027 onwards).
IATA’s Director General and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac, said: “I am optimistic that we are on the brink of a historic agreement—a first for an industry sector at the global level. The aviation industry would have preferred a more ambitious timeline than is currently outlined in the draft text. However, what is most important is that the substance of the negotiating text will allow for meaningful management of aviation’s carbon footprint. Airlines support it and urge governments to agree when they meet at ICAO.”
https://newtelegraphonline.com/aviation-unions-war-okewus-secondment
Ojikutu: BASA Funds Should Be Used to Support Aviation Industry
John Ojikutu is Secretary of Aviation Round Table and a
former Commandant of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. In this
interview with Chinedu Eze, he reasons that the Bilateral Air Service
Agreement
fund should be used to support the aviation industry. Excerpts:
With the current economic downturn
don’t you think Nigerian airlines need financial support, considering the
critical role they play in the nation’s economy?
Domestic
airlines are collecting cash every day. They sell tickets not on credit but on
cash and carry to passengers every day. The domestic airlines should pay for
the services that are being given to them. Domestic airlines are not paying
government tax. They
are
also in excess of salary arrears. So the question is, what do they do with
their money?
If
I go into business I will look at what will be my capital input and what will
be my return. Before they go into the business they should have done a very
good business plan. The plan will tell them what their profit will be in the
business. Of course you know you
are
going to buy fuel and pay for all these services provided by aviation agencies
and other organisations, but at the end of the day you should know what your
profit would be.
Aviation Unions at War over Okewu’s Secondment
All is not well with unions in the aviation sector following an open confrontation against the president of the Air Transport Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSAN), Benjamin Okewu.
The bone of
contention began, according to union petitions, with the secondment of the
President to one of the aviation parastatals, the Accident Investigation Bureau
(AIB)
ATSSAN members in the
Nigeria civil aviation authority (NCAA) who has the most active members frown
at the fact that ATSSAN had become ‘factionalised and open to political use’
Equally, other
unions, the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) and
the Nigeria Aviation Professionals Association (NAPA), insist in a written
petition to the minister of transport and the presidency that secondment of the
union president
from Nigeria College
of Aviation technology (NCAT) to the AIB contravened laid down rules in public
service. They insisted that the unions cannot be beneficiaries of what they had
fought against its abuse over the years.
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