KOREDE FOGO
There is palpable tension among local airlines in the nation’s Aviation sector as National Assembly threatened to pass legislation that will empower foreign airlines to fly domestic routes to check the abuse of passengers right by domestic airlines.
Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCCA, has set up a committee to look into the increasing cases of flight delays and cancellations by domestic airlines.
This is just as the National Assembly joint Committee on Aviation has
Speaking at the weekend, the National Assembly joint Committee on Aviation said the Assembly will soon come up with legislation that will empower the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, to grant permits to any willing foreign airline to fully operate on the Nigerian domestic routes.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, Smart Adeyemi, who disclosed the proposal during the joint Committees visit to Lagos, lamented the several raw deals passengers have suffered in the hands of domestic operators.
Senator Adeyemi said, ” as representative of the people, my phone has daily been inundated with calls and text messages from aggrieved domestic passengers who had experienced some forms of a raw deal from members of the Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON”.
He then said his committee in the Senate and that of the house of representatives had made up their minds to put in place necessary instruments that would empower the “NCAA to grant an operating license to any of the foreign airlines that would be willing and able to deliver on prompt and safe airlifting of Nigerians to all their domestic destinations.”
He further said that ” very soon airlines’ performances by their records with the NCAA would be placed in the public domain and a caveat on which one is healthy or not would accompany such public information.”