L-R: David Broz, senior vice president, aeronautical and airline affairs, Emirates; Zayyan Ibrahim, United Arab Emirates (UAE) consul general to Nigeria; Khalid Al Mannaei, chief executive officer, UAE VP office, political affairs; Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development; Adi Al Ghaith, senior vice president, commercial operations, Gulf, Middle East and Central Asia, Emirates; Paulos Legesse, country manager Nigeria, Emirates; and Chris Najomo, acting director general, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), during a ceremony to welcome Emirates flight back to Nigeria at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, recently
Sade Williams/Business a.m.
On the day Emirates Airlines, one of the world’s leading carriers, made its return to the Nigerian skies after a two-year absence, Festus Keyamo, aviation and aerospace minister, made a demand for compulsory codeshare between the airline and indigenous home carriers. Keyamo said the UAE flag carrier was already in talks with Nigerian airlines.
“And for our airlines too, I can speak, I can tell you that we also secured some kind of code-sharing agreement. We told them that if they want to code-share, our airlines will have the right of first refusal. We said our local airlines will have the right of first refusal because there will be a lot of code-sharing in this respect now. And as I speak with you, they are speaking with many of our local operators. I went with some of them, I’m sure you saw some of them. Emirates is speaking with a lot of our local operators now, and that is also for the benefit of our local aviation industry,” Keyamo said shortly after the arrival of an Emirates flight at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Wednesday.
The minister disclosed that part of the renegotiation of the Bilateral deal between Nigeria and the UAE was that airlines from both countries can fly into any airport in the countries.
“First of all, you have more options for indigenous carriers who are also flying to destinations in the Middle East and other lands. The first thing we did when we went to negotiate a new bilateral service agreement was to also secure the route for our local operators. And I’m sure you saw my statement last week. It was one of the major things I stood my ground on. And if you look at the new one, it said, to any destination, so nobody is going to have to say, well, this is prime, this is not prime airport. Our agreement with them is they fly to any destination, we fly to any destination in the UAE. So it’s purely reciprocal in that respect.
“You know that we have a variety of choices now. We have more competition on different international routes now. That’s what it’s all about, it’s to ensure healthy competition, and healthy competition leads to competitive prices for the benefit of the Nigerian people. I’m sure you know, without mentioning an airline, when this was suspended, I’m sure you know that some other airlines reaped the benefits. Many of them increased their frequencies to Nigeria. Many of them increased their fares because the seats were not available, flights were not available, and all of that. You also know that why we fought for this is that Dubai in particular is a major hub of the world. It links virtually every country of the world. I have not seen any major country, and I use that word advisedly as a major country that is not linked from Dubai. So for Nigerian travellers, it is easy to access any part of the world by simply travelling to Dubai and connecting to that country.
“We secured that any airport, in fact I will put it adversely that we are also free to fly to any airport in the UAE. They have Sharja, they have the Etihad airport, they also have the DXB. So we have, we insisted on that. So we have initiated the agreement, and I can bet you this is for the entire good of the Nigerian people. And coupled, of course, with the fact that we have gone around the world trying to restore confidence again in our aviation ecosystem. About the confidence we are giving to the leasing world with the practice direction of the Cape Town Convention that we signed early in this administration, [we] have seen that our score, our compliance score has gone up tremendously and still rising. So all of that will combine to empower our local operators to be able to service this route and also compete favourably with some of these big airlines that we are inviting into Nigeria. And more competition, less prices, and hey, anybody, any major businessman can come together and float an airline. We want more airlines to come to Nigeria to fly locally, regionally and internationally,” he added.
Keyamo added that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had indicated interest in restoring relationships with most countries, adding that the UAE was one of the countries identified as a major partner.
“Well, all thanks to President Bola Ahmed Tinubh who actually made this possible. When he came into office, he made it clear that he would like to restore relationships with most of the major partners and countries around the world. We identified as a government, we identified the UAE as a major and important partner and country that we should restore our relationship with. And that is why I took all the pain to go back there, to sign a new BASA, I went there, we signed a new air service agreement, bilateral air service agreement, you know, redefining our relationship again, making it more healthy, making it more open, and for the benefits, especially of the Nigerian people, and I decided to accompany them there.”
