Wole Shadare 
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, yesterday said that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has concluded plans to give Nigerian carriers wishing to operate in the Middle East Nation reciprocal rights under the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between the two countries.
He disclosed that he insisted on that with assurance from the UAE authorities that they would be granted any spot they choose to fly to. The minister, who spoke on the sidelines of the Aviation Africa Summit in Abuja yesterday, said his ministry had begun to work out flight resumption of Emirates Airlines and Etihad, stressing that resumption of flights from the routes Emirates exited last year due to a diplomatic face-off could take a little more time.
This is coming as Nigeria and South Africa signed an agreement on air safety and how to assist the country in attaining high safety standards, especially against the backdrop of Nigeria’s poor performance in the recently conducted International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) audit where the country scored 70 percent.
The audit result raised serious concern considering that NCAA failed to hit the 75 per cent pass mark. “It is an immediate deliverable for me under the indicator ensuring enforcement of highest standards within our shores.
“South Africa is doing 92 per cent with ICAO; we are doing 70 per cent and our agreement today is that we have signed an agreement with a bigger brother in terms of safety standards in Africa and we are proud to do so because of sharing intelligence with them that somebody is lifting us up.
It is going to be a symbiotic relationship because there are also areas we are going to assist them with in terms of safety standards. That is what we did today.”
Keyamo further stated that he would call for a stakeholders meeting to address myriads of challenges facing the sector, particularly on multiple charges and the fact that the Abuja and Lagos airports rank as the aerodromes with the highest levies.
Speaking on trapped funds, the minister assured foreign airlines whose trapped funds are about $500 million that they would be paid soon, stressing that the country is not doing the carriers favours by paying them their monies.
He said: “It is their trapped fund that is there and earned already. The problem was caused by issues of liquidity and that is our problem. The issue of liquidity is being addressed right now and it is something the President is very concerned about.
We addressed that issue in the UAE. We have begun to work out the details of flight resumption.” He promised to give his support to the local carriers’ initiatives, adding that he is ready to support them, but they must have a reciprocal duty to the Nigerian people to ensure their safety and comfort.
