Stakeholder Urges Passage Of ‘Fly Nigeria Act’

The Federal Government

has been urged to speed up the passage of “Fly Nigeria Act” (FNA) which seeks to mandate government officials and contractors to make domestic airlines their first choice for official trips, except where they do not fly to, or have codeshare agreement to do same.

The call was made in Port Harcourt by aviation stakeholder, Chief Mike Egwuonu, the Managing Director/CEO of Inter-Connect (Nig) Limited in an interview with The Tide recently.

According to him, the recent ultimatum given to British Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways and all international airlines operating in the country to dismantle the regional fare imbalance between what Nigerian passengers pay for international flights and their counterparts in the West African sub-region, or face a ban from operating in Nigeria, is a step in the right direction.

He noted that the fly Nigeria Bill will ensure that all the federal employees and their dependants, consultants, contractors, grantees, and others performing government financed foreign air travel by Nigerian air carriers. “A lot of the passengers who fly these international airlines fall into this category. An immediate passage of the Fly Nigeria Bill will utilise market forces to trap and keep these resource flight within Nigerian airlines without necessarily hampering Nigeria’s international aviation obligations in the long run,” he said.

He assured that the FNA, when it becomes operational, will mandate government officials including contractors handling government projects to fly Nigerian airlines overseas except where the local airlines or their codeshare partners do not fly to.

The aim he said is to strengthen domestic airlines, make them competitive and help the country retain part of the capital flight which averages N200 billion unmorally.