The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo has expressed the government’s commitment to exploring strategies to mitigate the soaring airfare prices in Nigeria.
Keyamo during a recent address in Abuja emphasised the importance of implementing comprehensive measures to alleviate the burden on travellers.
Keyamo stated, “We will see what happens. I don’t want to predict doom, but we will try all we have to do, not only the dollar issue or exchange issue but within the sector and other surrounding issues within the aviation sector, to force down prices.
He further elaborated on the need for Nigeria’s aviation industry to enhance competitiveness, emphasising the potential benefits of facilitating access to favourable leasing arrangements and loans for local airlines.
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He said, “Of course, we need to be competitive under those foreign rules, and I have said before how competitive we should be or how we can be more competitive by allowing our local airlines to have access to dry leases at single digits or loans at single digits.”
The minister explained, “Our banks cannot give loans to our operators at single digits. In fact, there is no way our local airlines can compete with loans at 26 per cent.
“So how do we do it? We need to go out of this country and all over the world to try and get extra for them to compete in those rules that our partners have allowed us to compete in.
“So, if, for example, British Airways has 14 slots coming into Nigeria every week, we should have our local airlines reciprocate and have 14 slots going into the UK every week, and that competitiveness will force down the prices and all other factors we are looking at too,” he stated.
