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Louis Ibah
Stakeholders in aviation industry are demanding that the Federal Government ‘should tweak some of its fiscal and regulatory policies to allow local investors make profits.
This formed part of the resolution at the end of a recently conference organised by the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) in Ikeja, Lagos.
The stakeholders, comprising airline owners, airport managers, pilots, regulators, air traffic controllers, analysts, heads of parastatals, decried the existing fiscal policies in the sector holding it as one of the factors responsible for the high mortality rate of Nigerian airlines, which it estimated at an average of five to 10 years.
According to the Managing Director/CEO of Medview Airlines, Muneer Bankole, the notable government and regulatory policies working against the profitability of the local airline industry include the difficulties in accessing single digit credit, the multiple taxations paid by airlines to various agencies; the shortage of foreign exchange (forex)for airline operators to buy new aircraft and maintain existing fleet at overseas Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility.
Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, lamented the difficult conditions that local airlines operate, saying it would be better if the government tweak some of the terms of the Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) to favour local airlines. At present, Nigeria’s BASA with 88 countries is skewed in favour of foreign airlines who are repatraiting about $3billion annually out of Nigeria owing to the absence of a vibrant national carrier or local airlines to reciprocate the BASAs.
“There is need to tweak the issue of BASA so that Nigerian operators can take the opportunities open to them,” said Akinkuotu.
