Nigeria Receiving First Dry Lease Aircraft After 20 Years Next Month – Minister

The curate of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said that Nigeria volition instrumentality transportation of dry-lease craft connected October 6, aft astir 20 years.

Keyamo disclosed  this astatine the groundbreaking ceremonial of Air Peace’s attraction hangar astatine the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) successful Lagos.

According to Keyamo, the archetypal adust lease volition get successful Nigeria by virtuousness of Air Peace aft Nigeria was removed from the blacklist globally,  owing to the implementation of the Cape Town Convention.

He said that what was obtainable each implicit Nigeria successful the past 20 years were bedewed leases, but assurance had returned to the Nigerian aviation ecosystem.

According to Keyamo, the unit of servicing bedewed leases mostly fell connected the consumers, resulting successful precocious summons prices, precocious attraction costs and precocious overheads.

“This is the archetypal clip we volition person a adust lease. Dry lease means that assurance has returned to the Nigerian ecosystem.

“They are giving you your plane. Control it yourself. I wrote a idiosyncratic warrant for Air Peace to get that adust lease. I enactment my beingness and estimation connected the line,” helium said.

Speaking connected Air Peace’s Maintenance, Repair and Overall (MRO) facility, Keyamo said this would prevention Nigeria, overseas speech and superior formation for craft maintenance.

“What this is going to prevention successful presumption of FX for this state is incredible. Air Peace unsocial spends astir N180 cardinal yearly connected maintenance; ideate what different airlines are spending.

“Money that should stay wrong our jurisdiction went out. That is superior flight. With this installation here, we volition support that wrong Nigeria.

“We are present going to pull radical to bring successful their money, not lone ours, but we are going to pull overseas inflows.

“In the full of West Africa and Central Africa, determination are nary bully MROs. The bully happening is that this installation volition accommodate wide-bodied aircraft. You bash not person specified successful the full of West Africa and Central Africa,” helium said.

He recalled that President Bola Tinubu’s authoritative sojourn to Brazil had paid disconnected due to the fact that Embraer would spouse with Air Peace to supply method enactment astatine the facility.

Keyamo noted that ensuring section operators thrive was astatine the halfway of his mandate and that the national authorities would ever enactment section airlines.

He besides added that the MRO installation would beryllium a game-changer, stimulating pilots to chopped superior flights and gain overseas exchange.

Therefore, the curate urged commercialized banks to instrumentality to the aviation ecosystem, adding that nary assemblage could turn without the progressive enactment of fiscal institutions.

He noted that the aviation strategy had been recalibrated and banks could concern craft acquisition, assuring they would get their wealth back.

Keyamo disclosed that helium had approved 4 planetary Air Peace routes (Italy, Canada, Paris and Istanbul).

The curate expressed displeasure that section carriers lone airlifted astir 5 per cent of planetary travellers from Nigeria and wished Nigerian carriers could bash more.