Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, says local airlines will soon get more aircraft to access international routes, enabling them to compete with foreign carriers operating into Nigeria.
Speaking on Monday on X space, Keyamo highlighted a milestone for Air Peace, which received the country’s first dry lease, adding that one local airline is set to take delivery of six 737s in the first quarter of next year.
The minister said one of Nigeria’s main challenges is the inability of local carriers to reciprocate international flights.
“We have bilateral service agreements with almost all the major countries in the world for us, for them to come here and for us to also go to their countries,” Keyamo said.
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“But look at what is happening. Air France comes here every week, both Lagos and Abuja. We don’t go to Paris. Lufthansa comes here every week, we don’t go to Germany. United America comes here every week from America, we don’t go to America.
“Even the African countries are taunting us. Rwanda Air, Kenya Air, Uganda Air, and South Africa come here every day, but we don’t go to these countries. What is going on? It is the capacity of our local airlines to reciprocate.”
He said the lack of capacity contributes to high airfares, as foreign carriers take advantage of Nigeria’s large passenger traffic.
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‘WE’LL OPEN COMPETITION ON INTERNATIONAL ROUTES’
To address the challenge, Keyamo said the government is empowering local airlines to expand internationally.
“They don’t have access to the aircraft. Now, what we are doing is that we are empowering them. Very soon, we are going to cover all of these routes I just talked about,” he said.
“Because of the empowerment we gave to Airpeace, we first made the breakthrough to Gatwick, and after a lot of diplomatic exchanges between myself and my counterparts in the UK, we got Heathrow.”
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The minister said the next step is to open competition on routes to the US, Canada, Paris, and other international destinations.
Keyamo noted that while progress has begun, the breakthrough achieved so far demonstrates the power of the Cape Town Convention, which provides access to aircraft and global leasing opportunities.
