The
Federal Government has appealed to foreign airlines operating in Nigeria, which
are in the process of downgrading or suspending their operations in the
country, to reconsider their decisions.
The
foreign carriers had on several occasions decried their inability to repatriate
earnings to their home countries as a result of the monetary policies of the
Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Government.
This
has made some of them to scale down their flight frequencies to Nigeria, while
a few others have totally halted their operations in the country.
But
the Federal Government explained that the challenges currently besetting the
aviation industry and other sectors of the economy would soon become a thing of
the past.
The
Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, made the appeal when he
received the West African Regional Manager for Emirates Airlines, Manoj Gopi
Nair, in his office in Abuja on Wednesday.
According
to PUNCH, Sirika told his guests that the government was not unaware of the
issues that had created operational difficulties for both domestic and foreign
airlines, such as unavailability of foreign exchange, aviation fuel shortage
and infrastructural deficiency.
He
said the government had been up and doing to ensure the creation of an
environment that was both enabling and profitable for the airlines to operate.
The
minister, according to a statement from the Aviation ministry, recalled the
recent concession given to airlines by the CBN to enable the carriers to
procure the required forex to clear the backlog of matured obligations.
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