Reps to ‘audit’ foreign carriers, want cabin, technical crew jobs for Nigerians

House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has vowed to ‘audit’ foreign airlines that are operating in the country to ascertain the number of Nigerians they employed as part of their cabin staff and technical crew (pilots and engineers).

The Chairman of the Committee, Nnolim Nnaji who disclosed this in a statement in Abuja said, ‘The parliament would also be interested in finding out the percentage of their tickets that are sold by local travel agents and at what commission “.

Nnaji stated that the audit would be done through the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority,  (NCAA) adding that, “if it is discovered that Nigeria is being shortchanged in any way we will not allow it”.

He noted that the country has been over-generous to the airlines with unrestricted access to the Nigerian travel market which they must reciprocate by engaging indigenous pilots, engineers, and licensed cabin crew in their technical staff.

“Most of the foreign airlines are granted multiple entry points into the country so as Representatives of the people we will be interested in knowing how such gestures reflect in our economy and labour force.

“It is equally important that we know the percentage of their tickets that are sold by our local agents so that we ensure that what obtains in other climes are the same here”. Nnaji further stated.

The House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Aviation emphatically stated that if it was found out that the foreign airlines were not engaging Nigerians as part of their technical and cabin crew the committee would seek to correct it so that young Nigerian professionals could be employed.

Wole Shadare