Author: Wole Shadare

Chukwu David As the economic recession begins to hit both public and private sectors of the economy, Airline operators in Nigeria yesterday, cried out to the Federal Government to bail them out to prevent them from imminent collapse. The operators, who made the demand at an emergency interactive session with the Senate Committee on Aviation, asked the government to grant them Special Intervention Fund to remain afloat in business. Speaking on behalf of the operators…

    Despite the N35.9 million it pays monthly to clean the Lagos airport, the airport toilets and other areas still stink.   Document made available to WoleshadareNews shows that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) pays N35, 993,244.16 to 40 concessionaires monthly for the cleaning of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos alone. Investigation also shows that the 40 cleaning companies are placed in different locations within the airport. But, despite the regular…

  Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), operator of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two (MMA2), said despite the challenges facing two of the airlines operating from the terminal, MMA2 is still fully operational. The management of the two affected airlines – Aero Contractors and First Nation – had announced last week the suspension of flight operations blaming their decisions on some circumstances beyond their control and promising to return to the skies as soon as…

African airlines experienced a 7.4 per cent increase in traffic compared to a year ago but this relates mainly to the strong upward trend in seasonally-adjusted traffic during the second half of 2015. Capacity rose 5.9 per cent, and load factor climbed 1.0 percentage point to 72.4 per cent, lowest among regions. This was disclosed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) when it announced global passenger traffic results for July showing acceleration in demand growth…

*Why we are concessioning airports-FG Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika said decrepit facilities at most of the country’s aerodromes have negatively affected the low passenger traffic currently recorded by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). Sirika, in an interaction with the media late Monday night on the state of aviation, said Nigeria loses millions of dollars, adding that with the way things are, super jumbo airplanes and many more airlines cannot operate to the…

For any economy to grow, aviation is a crucial component that helps to speed up growth, as it cuts across spheres such as travel, tourism, agricultural production and distribution, trade and commerce, rural development, manufacturing, oil and the non-oil sector. This was the view of former Secretary General of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Mohammed Tukur, in Lagos. Specifically, he said that the ripple effect and the value chain aviation creates is immeasurable. He noted…

*FG to dedicate Kaduna refinery for Jet A1 *Why we suspended flight-FirstNation Airways   The scarcity of aviation fuel in the country has been attributed to the diversion of Jet A1 in place of kerosene as aviation fuel is now cheaper than kerosene. Aside the scarcity of Jet A1 occasioned by the difficulty in sourcing foreign exchange to import the commodity, most homes now use aviation fuel in place of kerosene. This disclosure was made…

The Federal Government has made a slight restructuring at the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) following the appointment of Alhaji Farouk Ahmed Umar as Executive Director, Safety Electronics and Engineering of the agency. Umar’s appointment was officially announced by the government following several months of speculation that he was going to be made the substantive Managing Director of the agency. The current Acting Managing Director of NAMA, Emma Anasi is said to be due for…

The aviation industry in Nigeria has never grown. Every time, it is behaving like a toddler, writes WOLE SHADARE Events in the last week show that Nigeria’s aviation industry is really going through turbulent times. Nigeria is no doubt, in recession and since aviation is part of the country’s economy that used to contribute less than one per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it cannot be isolated. Given the status quo, nobody is…

Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika would tomorrow meet with airline operators under the aegis of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON). WoleshadareNews learnt that the meeting is not unconnected with the state of the aviation industry in the country and the need to proffer solution to many problems that have stunted the growth of the industry. An airline chief who confided in our reporter said the meeting will take place at 10am. But the…