Good move Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on Emirates. A really great piece of music is playing in Abuja and Dubai now. Since we took a tougher position even British Airways and associated authority are approaching things in more respectable manners.
I do not like these international commercial confrontations but I have grown to understand that sometimes they could be the only ways to make progress in this world. UAE cannot give Air Peace just one weekly flight (out of 3 it requested) when we are giving Emirates 21.
I commend the NCAA: it is called reciprocity – 1 for 1! If Air Peace gets one, Emirates also gets 1. But if they allow Air Peace the 3 it asked for, then approve the 21 Emirates requested. It is called fairness!
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Full statement from NCAA below
“Following the lifting of the ban on Emirates Airlines passenger flights to Nigeria by the Government, the UAE based airline applied to Federal Ministry of Aviation for approval of its Winter flight schedule. The requested schedule consisted of 21 weekly passenger flight frequencies to Nigeria, comprising of two daily flights to Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos and one daily flight to Nnamdi Azikwe International, Abuja.
“The Minister of Aviation graciously approved the Winter schedule as requested without any hindrances in the spirit and intent of the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and UAE.
“Air Peace Airlines, the only Nigerian airline that operates passenger flights to UAE, requested for 3 weekly passenger flight frequencies and was granted only one weekly passenger flight frequency. The NCAA counterpart in UAE attributed the development of this action to non-availability of arrival slots at the Sharjah International Airport.
“The Minister of Aviation decided to apply the principle of reciprocity and withdraw the approval given to Emirates Airlines and instead approve one weekly flight frequency to Abuja on Thursday. The DG, NCAA notified the country manager of Emirates Airlines of the new approved weekly flight frequency schedule.” Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Musa Nuhu.
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21 for 3, and they are speaking English of non available of slots? The 21 that will be gyrating to and fro will be landing and taking off from where, in the sea? Nigeria has been too generous to a lot of countries, even the ones that claim to be developed, yet they partly rely on Nigeria to remain afloat, while they keep posturing as true greats.
Nigeria is like a mini China, with our population, anybody we shut out here will still come for negotiations, because the market remains tempting, that’s what numbers give you.
Very soon we will start putting each country where they truly belong, including the average and mediocre ones that keep posturing as though they are better than Nigeria, the true greats are very few, others have nothing, just packaging.
A very commendable move by the minister of aviation. It would have been interesting to have given Emirates that slot for Ibadan airport only.
However, UAE authorities are only ensuring that their business maintain a dominant position.
Business or Nonsense, its all about perspective.