Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Foreign Airlines Boycott Nigerian Airspace Due To Poor Infrastructure

Following the numerous infrastructural and logistic challenges of the Nigerian aviation sector, reports have emerged that at least 10 foreign airlines now boycott the Nigerian airspace thereby leading to loss of revenue. 

The airlines now reportedly reroute their flights through neighboring countries even as key officials in the aviation agencies and workers’ unions had inundated the Minister of Aviation, Stella Uduah-Ogiemwonyi with letters on the deplorable state of the communications equipment.
http://nigerianbulletin.com 

THERE seems to be no respite yet for operators and patrons of the Nigerian aviation sector as more problems have continued to dog the industry. 

From tarmac challenges due to poor infrastructure, high cost of aviation fuel to huge expenditure on aircraft acquisition and maintenance, the safety of the country’s airspace is now a subject of controversy between the Federal Government and foreign airlines.

The situation is so bad that often times airplanes enter the Nigerian airspace without the knowledge of air traffic controllers. At other times, they only get to know of such flights through telephone calls from their counterparts in Nigeria’s friendly nations.

Apparently to avoid running into trouble with the aviation authorities over an open declaration that the country’s airspace was no longer safe for them to overfly, all the major foreign airlines have quietly refrained themselves from using the nation’s airspace.

According to them, the country’s airspace is dotted with moribund communications gadgets (visual and voice) such that air traffic controllers and pilots now have extreme difficulty in reaching one another.

Before the foreign airlines took the action, some key officials in the aviation agencies and workers’ unions had inundated the Minister of Aviation, Stella Uduah-Ogiemwonyi with letters on the deplorable state of the communications equipment.


Read more here:   http://www.ngrguardiannews.com

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