‘Why Foreign Carriers Don’t Codeshare With Local Airlines’

The Managing Director of
Med-View Airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, has said that foreign airlines operating in Nigeira would not codeshare with their local counterparts because they enjoy multiple designations granted to them by the Nigerian government.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen in Lagos, Alhjai Bankole, said allowing foreign carriers to drop off and pick up passengers at different airports in the country only benefits air passengers as they are flown directly to their destinations from abroad, but constitutes “bad business for the indigenous carriers.”
He dismissed claims by foreign carriers that they are unable to partner with the local airlins because they are neither members of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) nor International Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) compliant.
Alhaji Bankole argued that Med-View is a member of IATA and runs the same financial routing called Billing Settlement Plan (PSP) with almost all the foreign carriers, remarking that the airline at the moment was on the third legs workshop of IOSA.
He said it would not be difficult for the domestic carriers to collaborate if the foreign airlines showed commitment, but argued that with their unrestricted access to several points in the country, they would not want to go into such agreements with any of the local carriers.
“I want to say it here that there is no serious commitment from the foreign carriers because the window is not open to them to collaborate with the Nigerian carriers. The people at the helm of affairs discuss with these people without considering the impacts on the local carriers. So they don’t carry the local carriers into the negotiations.
“The decision of the government to open the gates to every airline should be put back to the federal government because the job that we are creating to Nigerians are being taken away by the foreign carriers. These people are not bringing money into the economy, rather they are taking the money out,” he said.
The Managing Director said Emirates operate 732 flights into this country yearly, “two flights into Lagos, multiply by 30 times a month and again multiply that by 12 months, you will get the number.”
And now it is operating from Abuja and probably another one in Kano, tomorrow, per- harps in Port Harcourt. So, if you calculate it the volume of money going out of this country from such carrier is over N60billion annually,” he added.