The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said domestic airlines cannot compete with big international airlines because they don’t have access to aircraft on the same terms as them.
Keyamo disclosed that the federal government is working with the Aviation Working Group on a practice direction to enable domestic airline operators to dry lease aircraft.
In an interview on Arise Television on Monday, Keyamo revealed that some local operators had in the past breached the Cape Town Convention, which regulates aircraft leasing across the world.
The minister said the Aviation Working Group, co-chaired by Airbus and Boeing, has said Nigeria would be blacklisted until it implements a law that would guide such from happening.
He said: “Why we cannot compete with big international airlines is because we don’t have access to aircraft on the same terms as they have. People don’t know that the best airlines in the world run their fleet 100 per cent based on the actual purchase of aircraft. Recent studies show that 70 per cent of the fleet across the world is on dry leases.
“For airlines that have bank facilities, they have access to loans in single digits, but our banks do 26 per cent. It was as a result of this that I called industry people to inform them that in order to survive, they must have access to these aircraft as those around the world.
“So, I went around to enquire about what guides aircraft leasing around the world, and I discovered it was the Cape Town Convention, which regulates aircraft leasing across the world. And Nigeria is a signatory to that convention. We have signed and ratified that convention.
“And there is a group responsible for the observance and compliance of that convention. The group is co-chaired by Airbus and Boeing. The group is called the Aviation Working Group, headed by Jeffrey Wool.
“I called all of them and held a meeting to ask why our local operators are not getting these aircraft. According to them, they have blacklisted Nigeria because it didn’t comply with the convention.
“The Aviation Working Group told me that until our laws are amended, until our practice directions are amended from granting injunctions on aircraft on dry lease, they will not bring aircraft in dey lease into Nigeria.
“So, I told them I would do that. I spoke with the Attorney General of the Federation, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the president and vice president, who is the head of the Ease of Doing Business; all of them have agreed that it is a critical issue.
“We are in the process of drafting a practice direction to satisfy the Aviation Working Group that once we give a practice direction that says: ‘please, our judges, don’t grant injunctions to detain aircraft that are on dry lease in Nigeria because it gives us a bad image and it is against the Cape Town Convention of the Aviation Working Group’”.
