‘Nigeria should have a national carrier’

Thenationonlineng.com


The only way the Federal Government can reduce the massive capital flights out of the country and the crisis emanating from fare discrepancies among international carriers is for the Government to float a national carrier, the deputy president of Nation Union of Air Transport Employees ( NUATE), Comrade Samuelson Aturu has canvasssed.




According to the Deputy President of the National Union of Air Transport Employees, until issues of setting up a naational carrier is resolved government will not be able checkmate the excesses of foreign carriers, which violate the rights of Nigerian passengers with arbitrary fares.
Aturu posited that despite the various flag carriers in the country, Nigeria still needed a national carrier to protect its interest in the global aviation industry, maintaining that without this, capital flights and fare imbalances would continue unabated.

He insisted that it would be difficult for the ministry of aviation and indeed the Federal Government to stamp their authorities on the mega carriers, stressing that the airlines are in business to generate revenues for themselves.

But, explained that if there was a national carrier to compete on the same routes with the foreign carriers and airlift Nigerian passengers to various routes they fly to, the issue of imbalance fares and capital flights would reduce if not eradicated among the carriers.




Also, he called for the establishment of a competitive commission to regulate the operations and the fares of the mega carriers operating into the country, adding that such commission exists in United Kingdom and even the United States.