Abdulsalami Mohammed, Rector and Chief Executive of the College of Aviation Technology, Zaria, has called on the active participation of Nigerians in the set-up of the planned National Carrier.
It would be recalled that last week, the Federal Government approved the engagement of Luftansa Consulting and others as transaction advisors for the establishment of National carriers amongst others, as part of implementing the Aviation road map.
“I am hoping that by the time the National carrier is setup, there will be a reverse in the trend as Nigerians travel out of the country because there are no jobs. If there are similar jobs available locally, Nigerians will come and support the National carrier.
“This was what happened in the days of Virgin Nigeria. When Virgin Nigeria was setup, virtually every pilot in Nigeria applied to join. I left my work in the UK and came to work for Virgin Nigeria. So, I believe when the National carrier is setup, there will be huge droves of Aviation professionals coming to join the National carrier,” Mohammed said.
Dele Ore, President of Aviation Round Table and a former Pilot with the defunct Nigeria Airways, said that: ”before a new national carrier is set up, there is a need to find out what went wrong with Nigeria airways. So, we do not fall into the same problem”, as reported by Business Day Newspaper.
”It is important that the Federal Government carries out a feasibility study to know the kind of aircraft to float for the carrier and let people know if they will be given exclusive routes to ply like they did to Virgin Nigeria for five years”, Ore said.
This call is coming at a time when there is a reduction in the number of unemployed personnel in the Nigeria aviation sector which is currently created by the recent challenges faced by the sector, these experts say.
”The sector is going through a lot of challenges this period which has even made it difficult for airlines to employ as much staff as they used to. Some of the challenges are foreign exchange scarcity, high cost of aviation fuel and the economic recession. All we need to salvage this situation is implementing the right policies,” Isaac Balami, President of the Nigeria Aircraft and Pilot Engineers told Business Day Newspaper.
*A National carrier is a transportation company, such as an airline that, being locally registered in a given country, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations.
