***N500m Will be saved annually

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has indicated that his ministry is going ahead with the relocation of the headquarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) from Abuja to Lagos.

“There is no going back. The directive has been given,” the minister said matter-of-factly on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.

Senator Ali Ndume from Borno South as well as chieftains of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Elders Forum ( NEF) and other northern groups had moved against the plan by FAAN and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), linking to a marginalise the north agenda

However, in line with current economic and operational realities, Keyamo said the movement of the headquarters of the airport authority to Lagos has become necessary.

Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said the movement of the FAAN headquarters would save the government and the people of Nigeria half a billion naira wasted on air tickets by officials of the Authority who have to commute from Lagos to Abuja and back.

The minister said top FAAN officials and aviation unions approached him that the head office of the authority be moved to Lagos for operational efficiency.

On whether President Bola Tinubu was aware of the decision or not, he said, “I take the decision; it’s a decision under the purview of a minister”.

He said only the headquarters of one of the seven aviation agencies in the country is being moved from Abuja to Lagos.

Keyamo said when his predecessor, Hadi Sirika, moved the headquarters of all aviation agencies from Lagos to Abuja in 2020, no adequate provision was made for the principal officers like the directors and the departments under them.

He clarified that the headquarters is where the decision-makers meet, not where the largest number of workers are and not where the biggest building is.

He said over 100 of the 132 workers at the head office are in Lagos while only the directors are in Abuja — without their support staffers.

Keyamo said the whole issue was compounded with the fact that FAAN is not yet digitalised and so, in one year, they spend half a billion naira on flight ticket between Lagos and Abuja alone.

“You see them flying every day to-and-fro Abuja to get one file signed. They fly everyday back and forth. In one year, they spent close to half a billion naira on flight tickets. N450m on flight tickets alone,” he said.

The Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, has disclosed that starting from January 2024 regulators of the aviation sector will begin to compel airlines to compensate passengers for delayed or cancelled flights

The Minister spoke on Tuesday when he appeared before the Joint National Assembly Committee on Aviation to defend his ministry’s budget for 2024 fiscal year.
Keyamo also assured that a list of airlines that delayed or cancelled flights will be published in the media on a weekly basis as part of the compensation scheme .

“I have called the customer’s satisfactory commission regarding the treatment of Nigerians. In fact, I have gone back to the committee, that is how much concerned I am.

Explaining further the minister said henceforth the list of airlines who record canceled flights, delayed flights or failed to fly as at when due will be published along with how many hours of delay on a weekly bases.

The aviation minister also proposed for discounts to be deducted from the flight tickets of airlines that delayed passengers as part of the compensation.
“For every delay, there is a report, an actual report by the regulator, what did they do? Did they pay compensation? And if they didn’t pay compensation we have said that the other way to get compensation if they can return cash is that once the passenger is buying the next ticket it must be given on a rebate.
“That passenger must be given a 50 percent rebate or 40 percent rebate because they must be a rebate”.

On the issue of Concession of Airports Keyamo said the best option to develop Nigerian airports is through concessions to investors.
“Private Partnership must come to the fore. It is not even negotiable, we don’t have the funds to do so.
“In concessioning, we will give the people what we want, not what they want. We have to decide what we want. It is the nature, the quality of the concession that all of us will agree on.

“We want to go ahead but I want everyone of us to sit down, look for the best hands, we should go to the end of this world to look for the best and the best thing for Nigeria and raise our offer to tier one, not tier two. Tier one investors to come to Nigeria and build our gateway for us”.

***Says ceremony stagemanaged, Nigeria Air is yet to launched

The Interim Managing Director of Nigeria Air, Captain Dayo Olumide has admitted before the Senate Committee on Aviation on Tuesday, that the recently unveiled Nigeria Air launched by former President Muhamadu Buhari, was a chattered aircraft from Ethiopia hired for five days to show case the logo to Nigerians and their shareholders.

Captain Dayo disclosed further that, for Nigeria to operate an aircraft, the aircraft must be Nigerian registered with all necessary procedures complied with.

He added that, the particular aircraft that was unveiled was not registered and came into Nigeria with a few days clearance from Ethiopia and was returned after use.

He further stated that Nigeria only has airport license which is one of two licenses required for operating an airline and does not permit one to carry out commercial service operations

In his words, “I will like to address your question first before I go on. The aircraft that came in and left was a legitimate charter flight.

“Anyone of us here if we have a destination wedding in Senegal, we can charter an aircraft. You don’t need to have a licence to do that, you just charter an aircraft, an aircraft you paid for it, it will be brought here, take your passengers and off you go.

“And that is what we did. But in this case, it was to unveil, ever since 2018, all you have ever seen about Nigeria Aircraft were pictures, drawings not the real aircraft, and we thought it was time to show what the logo will look like on a real aircraft and also to let our shareholders see the effort we have made so far. “Our institutional investors are not in aviation, but they are putting their money for 10 or 15 years. So they need to see what the actual aircraft with logo will look like. Then the social media dimension came into it.

“It is Ethiopian registered one . Why is it Ethiopian registered. To operate aircraft in Nigeria, they must be Nigerian registered; that aircraft was not 5th November registered because it was a chartered flight and it came in with just a few days clearance and off it went.

“For us to get that licence which is my mandate, we must among other things have three aircraft before the NCA will give us a licence and those three aircraft must be Nigerian registered aircraft.

“There are five steps that one goes through to have a licence. We have gone from the first one to the second one but the problem is that when you change what we call post holders, post holders is a technical term for director of maintenance, Chief pilot, when you change them and replace them completely, you have to go back to phase one to interview them to be compliant to the authority.
“But haven gone back to phase one doesn’t mean you have done anything wrong. That is a correct and normal process.”

“So when this aircraft came on a chartered flight, everybody said we have launched Nigeria Air, I want to clarify that we have not launched Nigeria Air”.

In their remarks , the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Biodun Olujimi (PDP Ekiti South ) and Smart Adeyemi (APC Kogi West), said it was unfortunate for the Nigeria Air project to be shrouded in suspicion and secrecy.

The committee also frowned at other at other decisions taken by handlers in the aviation sector that does not add value to the sector and the image of the country.