FG Plans Aircraft Leasing Pool To Grow Aviation- Keyamo
Federal Government has disclosed plans to establish an aircraft leasing company in Nigeria to provide boost to local carriers.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, said this at the ceremonial arrival of Air Peace’s first dry lease aircraft, Boeing 737-700 NG, at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos.
Keyamo said the aircraft leasing company would enable local airlines to access aircraft, saying: “We want to put an aircraft leasing company in place, so that Nigerian airlines will not be the ones negotiating with the world.
“We don’t have to walk in silence again. The airlines don’t need to walk around the world looking for aircraft. Government must take care of that responsibility.”
According to him, the leasing company would form a capital base, with local airlines given priority access to these resources.
He said: “This pool will form a capital base. No other person can be the off takers before the local airlines. This will make life easy for the airlines. We’ll be knocking on the doors of aircraft lessors and manufacturers very soon to talk business. We are here to support the local airlines.
“We need more wide-body aircraft. We have bilateral service agreements with so many countries in the world. And all of those BASAs, we have reciprocal rights to apply those rules. As I speak to you, we are not taking advantage of those reciprocal rights.”