A group of aviation experts, known as the Aviation Round Table (ART), has urged the Federal Government to speed up the establishment of a new national carrier and conclude the concession of some airports.
Giving the advice, while speaking to journalists, on Thursday, the President of ART, Gbenga Olowo, said that these were among the group’s expectations in the aviation sector in 2018.
Olowo noted that the delay in resolving the issues relating to the concession of the airports and the national carrier were not good for the industry.
He said: “This regime has one year and few months to go and Nigeria is a country that doesn’t have long term planning.
“I expect that during this year, before the electioneering takes centre stage, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari must rest the issue of the national carrier quickly.
According to him, this will enable the Nigerian carrier to properly carry out its short and long term plans.
“So, to help them do proper planning, the government must come out to say whether it will go on or not with the national carrier, and if the government is going on with it, a take-off date should be announced,” he said.
Olowo said Nigeria also needed to begin to plan on the size of the major airports, to accommodate the projected growth in passenger traffic.
“ If we are planning to concession them, what parts are we going to concession and when is implementation going to start?
“We need to see action immediately along these lines,” he said.
