FG moves to check private jet owners operations

…legislation on use of local airlines for govt-funded trips underway – Keyamo

The Federal Government will soon come up with a policy that will properly streamline the operations of private jet owners in Nigeria to curtail the humongous amount being lost by Government to private pockets and also to ensure safety.

To this end, the General Aviation Terminal (GAT), which is the hub of such operations, may soon be closed down by Government to allow for proper operational scrutiny of the private jets’ operations.

This hint was dropped by Festus Keyamo SAN, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development on Nigeria, who also raised hope on reduction of international ticket fare At the annual miinisterial briefing which was held in Abuja on Thursday.

According to him, when the number of private jet in Nigeria began to soar, Government decided to set up a Committee to look into their operations and discovered that a larger number of them are being used for charter operations.

Keyamo explained that 80% of private jet owners in Nigeria were cutting corners and had robbed Government of money running to a billion dollars in the past two years.

He said these private jet owners, in attempt to circumvent rules, would register their aircraft as private to attract little levy from the regulatory authority, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and then convert such aircraft to charter operations.

Keyamo stated that the system was not only fraudulent but a very risky operational system with dire implications for the image of the country as well as passengers flying such aircraft.

“The risk in this type of operations is that the aircraft will be flying without flight plans and with no manifest to identify those that are on board”, he noted.

To curtain this, the Minister said Goverment is looking into the recommendations of a Committee set up in that regard, which proposed that a thorough auditing be conducted on private jets operating in the country, to fish out the erring ones and bring them to book.

“The recommendation says that we should close down the General Aviation Terminal (GAT), to conduct a proper check on these operators who are playing chess on human lives as well as creating holes in the pocket of Government,” Keyamo said.

On exorbitant international airfare, the Minister said negotiation was ongoing to ensure significant slash in the airfare of international flights into the country.

He however said the present high fare regime was due to the huge amount being owed these airlines by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as a result of inability to pay them in foreign currency.

“These foreign airlines collect most of their fares in Naira through their agents who will now pay it to the Central Bank of Nigeria to convert to dollar and pay the airlines. But because there was no dollar to pay them in the coffers of the CBN due to the bad system in the past these airlines were owed to the tune of a billion dollars, ” he said

But the minister assured of hope as he said the present Government had cleared all such debts and had resolved a prompt payment to the airline’s as soon as their money gets to the apex bank.

“The present high fare regime by foreign airlines is because they are not sure if getting their money remmited to them on time due to the past experience. But we are on negotiating table to assure them of prompt payment so that they also normalize charges as they do in other countries of hitchless operations, ” Keyamo assured

Meanwhile, the Minister further hailed the Government of President Bola Tinubu, for the tremendous quick fix he had brought to bare in the Aviation sector, two years into his administration.

According to him, the present Government met a messy Aviation sector with lopsided policy that made operations a hell for airline owners and a furnace for Government.

He however said that most of the hiccups met had been surmounted with sanity gradually being restored.

He listed the array of litigations the country had been able to trash, the restoration of operational hitch between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirate, culminating in the restoration of flight into the country by Emirate Airline and the current drive to boost local operations through code sharing with visiting foreign airlines, as significant steps towards a buoyant Nigeroan aviation sector.

He also said that Government would soon be pushing a Fly Nigeria Act, to the National Assembly to ensure that all Government- funded official trips are carried out by local airlines.

“Under that regime, local airlines must be first contacted on all official trips funded by government. We are taking this to the Federal Executive Council and then we will go to the National Assembly to argue it out,” he said