The African Union Heads of State will next week launch the long-awaited Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during its Heads of State Summit.
The market is aimed at having an open sky for African airlines to increase trade, investment, seamless passenger movement, boost tourism among others.
Ahead of the launch, Nigerian airlines at a sensitization workshop organized in Lagos by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, say they were not comfortable with the Initiative due to certain challenges and would not support the open sky initiative.
Chairman of the Association of Aircraft Owners, Captain Mohammed Joji and his counterpart of the Airline Operators of Nigeria, Captain Nogie Meggison say if the Open sky was to work, the issues of taxes, price of aviation fuel, infrastructure deficit, access to foreign exchange, policy somersault among others must be addressed.
They said there was need to look into the advantages and disadvantages to Nigeria before jumping into signing treaties that would not augur well for the airlines who bear the cost of operations.
While not condemning the initiative, the aircraft owners and operators want government to have a second thought of fully committing to the liberalization of the single air transport in Africa.
