Bad policy formulation, bane of Nigerian carriers, says Ore

 The continuous signing of Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs), by the Federal Government with several foreign countries among several other unfavourable policies would continue to hamper growth of the airline sub-sector in the country.

Also, the lack of sufficiently trained and type-rated technical personnel in the nation’s aviation industry would incessantly give rooms for expatriates to take over the jobs of local people.

These were the views of the immediate past President, Aviation Round Table, ART, Capt. Dele Ore in while fielding questions reporters in Lagos.

Ore stated that bad policy formulations and implementations by governments in the past led to the early collapse of operating airlines in the country, stressing that despite this, such bad policies still continued unabated by the government.

The aircraft captain berated government over multiple entries of foreign airlines without reciprocity from their Nigerian counterparts.

He insisted that there was nothing wrong with signing of BASAs, but said the nation must benefit with such arrangements.

He was however silent on the recent BASA arrangement with the Qatari Government, saying that he was yet to see the details.
“Nothing has happened to improve the policies for the airlines. Our policies will soon drown airlines that are operational. We still have multiple entry points for foreign carriers. With that policy, we are killing our domestic carriers. We are indirectly opening up our airspace courtesy of such agreements.

“It’s only the ground handling companies that are doing well in the sector while others are crawling. We don’t have enough places to train personnel for the sector and nothing has been done in the past six months of Sen. Hadi Sirika as a Minister of State for Aviation to curtail capital flights in the sector,” he said.

Ore also warned that with the high level of expatriates taking over positions of local technical personnel, the next 10 years might be worse for the Nigerian aviation industry.

He explained that several pilots trained from different aviation colleges in the country and beyond are roaming the streets without jobs, positing that local airlines are getting dispensation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for expatriate quota, which would negatively affect Nigerian professionals in the future.

“If care is not taken, soon, we will have half-baked aircraft commanders in the cockpit. The government should come up with a policy that says at least, we must have a Nigerian in the cockpit even if not as a commander, a Nigerian should act as a co-pilot,” he said.