By Emmanuel Obisue
Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo has allayed fears that the recent fall of the Naira to the Dollar is no indication that prices of local air tickets will rise.
Nigerian Pilot reports that the Naira hit an all-time high of N1500 per $1 few days ago.
Speaking to Journalists on Friday in Abuja at the sidelines of the 10th edition of the Aviation Workers’ Week & Award, the minister said all local carriers need to do is to be more competitive across foreign routes, adding that the government is doing all it can to “force down prices” of air fares.
“We’ll see what happens. I don’t want to predict gloom or doom as the case may be.
“We need to go out of the country to get aircraft for our local operators that they can use to compete in those routes that our BASA have allowed us to compete in,” he said.
“For example, if British Airways has 14 slots coming into Nigeria every week, we should have our local airlines being able to reciprocate 14 slots going in the UK weekly,” he added.
Highlighting on the theme: ‘Worker as Strategic Partners in Achieving the Aviation Road Map’, Keyamo agreed that the Aviation workforce remains critical to achieving his 5-point Aviation Road Map.
Earlier is his Welcome Address, Comrade Hector Nnadi, Chairman of the Joint Consultative & Negotiation Council, JCNC of the Aviation Ministry, assured of Workers’ unalloyed support towards achieving the Aviation Road Map.
