Shock as foreign airlines bring two-way meals to Nigeria

• FG to review BASA with 90 countries-Minister

Not a few stakeholders expressed shock over the disclosure that some foreign airlines bring two-way meals into Nigeria.

This disclosure was made by the Chairman, Board of Directors of Sky Chefs Things Remembered Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Adeola Omikunle during her presentation at the stakeholders at the weekend in Lagos and challenges faced by aviation catering companies in the country.

Her disclosure left many stakeholders bewildered as to the rationale for the airlines to bring two-ways from their countries to Nigeria considering the fact that the meal for the return leg of their journey may no longer be fresh for human consumption.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo has promised to look into the matter with a view to addressing what he termed an ‘anormally.

While some of the foreign carriers may be doing that to conserve costs, carrying of meals and water for a return journey may constitute additional weight to the aircraft thereby consuming more fuel aside from the fact that the meals may no longer be fresh even when heated up.

While some consider the action a violation of the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA), many others that are conversant with the BASA agreements Nigeria has with other countries said there is no BASA on that aspect which opened the eyes of stakeholders to insert the clause that foreign airlines wishing to operate to Nigeria must patronize the country’s catering firms that have been certified to be world-class.

Omikunle however stated that many of the foreign operators are their clients because of the satisfaction they have with the meals they serve to their customers; a situation which she said has helped to reduce the costs of the airlines.

Many have asked how fresh is the food that’s served on flights. It turns out that the answer depends on a lot of factors, including the airline, the length of the flight, and even the time of day.

In general, though, one can expect food on a plane to be less fresh than what you’d find in a restaurant – but it’s not always as bad as one might think.

International food safety standards allow airlines to freeze food for up to five days before serving it to passengers.

Airlines have worked hard to reduce costs since the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978 in the United States. The first in-flight meal was a prepackaged lunch box that cost about three shillings. Until 1936, when United Airlines began serving cold food on board, flying had been a frozen food experience.

Meanwhile, Keyamo has said the  Federal Government would review all the BASA Nigeria signed with other countries.

The decision to review the BASAs is coming on the heels of the numerous complaints by professionals and stakeholders in the aviation industry that some of the agreements were skewed to favour other countries to the detriment of Nigeria.

They further argued that most of the BASAs entered into by Nigeria with other countries were signed when Nigeria lacked the required aviation capacity to reciprocate and that they are long overdue for review.

Wole Shadare