nsk 1st son: hmmm,
208m to plant flowers n tree?,maka chukwu, 9ja is rich n dis stella z waisting funds.

CHESSBOARD: Idiott I tot you leave in abroad, and you don't know that beautification of environment and the maintenance are xpensive, tell me why netherland make billions of dollars by selling flowers. its the same you ppl that will say the airports are ugly, ask fashola how much he spend on planting flowers in lagos.

Uyi Iredia:

Sure. There is sense in planting flowers in shanties. And spending billions on flowers with poor aircraft safety standards.

Dahomey Amazon: CLUELESSNESS, @cfcfan, any updates on the national carrier

The aviation ministry plans to spend N208 million to plant flowers and trees in the country's five main airports. They include Port Harcourt, Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Enugu airports.

CFCfan:

Well, Yakubu Dati, the coordinating PRO for the aviation parastatals has said that there is no agreement yet on the composition of the airline. Arik Air and Qatar are some of the airlines the FG is negotiating with.
I would prefer Arik Air merging with Aero and remnants of the defunct Air Nigeria. The new airline would then be able to use Arik's seven B787 Dreamliners on order, and it's two B777 also on order.

Sincere 9gerian: The reason many of the MDAs jack up budgetary provisions at the stage of PRESENTATION is that usually during implementation, not all the budgeted sums are released. There is a difference between what is written on paper and what is eventually released as cash by the ministry of finance to the various MDAs. This is a fact.

We can only see the actual cost of these projects when contract for them is awarded.

Dahomey Amazon:
Oh thanks, I like the Arik idea.

CFCfan:
You're welcome.
If Arik becomes part of Nigerian Eagle (new national carrier), then NE will have over 40 aircraft. This would make it the biggest Nigerian airline ever.

CFCfan: Actually, planting flowers along the airport road and within the airport premises is a good idea; as it adds to the beauty of the airport.

However, the bone of contention is the cost. Spending N41 million per airport, is too much.

Nigeria is the only country in Africa with high and growing number of indigenous international travellers put at over eight million per annum. It is estimated that by 2020, the figure will more than double. The international travel market is put at over $80 billion, but Nigerian carriers have less than three per cent of this huge market. Chinedu Eze writes that Nigeria’s failure to have a national carrier is at the root of the loss of opportunities in air transport sector

Unemployment is high in Nigeria because the Nigerian government has not exploited job opportunities in every sector of the economy to create jobs. So there is potentially a large, open job market at every facet of the nation’s economy, which is today redundant. Take for example, the aviation sector; the catering department can create over 200, 000 jobs, if Nigeria has viable airlines that are fully involved in air lifting Nigerians to international destinations.


Such viable airlines will need over 100,000 cabin crew members thousands of technicians and with Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility established, there will be hundreds of indigenous engineers needed. About 10 years ago, Lufthansa alone has more than 17,500 pilots; over 22,000 cabin crew members and half a million technicians with three main maintenance facilities located at its three major German cities. That figure must have increased and the most lucrative route for Lufthansa is Lagos to Frankfurt. It is the same with British Airways, South African Airways, Air France and others.

The fulcrum of air transport development is built on a nation’s national carrier, which could be largely private sector driven or fully owned by government, like Africa’s most profitable airline, Ethiopian Airlines. Nigeria lost its bearing and prime position in the sector when it liquidated the Nigerian Airways Limited (NAL) in 2004. Manpower development, dominance of a country’s lucrative routes and commercial air service agreement revolve around a national carrier or flag carrier that has the full backing of government.

Nigeria is losing over N400 billion to foreign airlines and expatriate manpower in the aviation sector annually because NAL was liquidated so it could no more train aviators and all its lucrative routes have been taken over by foreign airlines, which easily receive frequencies from the Nigerian government like a piece of cake.

International aviation expert and former Secretary General of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), Nick Fadugba, said: “Ideally, in 2004, the Government of Nigeria should have privatised the loss-making national carrier, Nigeria Airways, rather than liquidate it. The Government of Kenya followed this strategy and Kenya Airways is now one of the leading airlines in Africa.
“Running a successful airline is a very difficult job. You need deep pockets, a viable business plan, competent management and an enabling regulatory and economic environment to run a profitable airline anywhere in the world. Many Nigerian airlines today are disadvantaged from the outset, in terms of their aircraft fleet size and commercial viability and the operating environment.”

Remedying the Situation
Aviation experts believe that it would be difficult for Nigeria to withdraw the flight rights it has given out to foreign carriers, but government can start empowering its own airlines and give the opportunities to compete by fully supporting them and reviewing the Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) it signed with various countries on flight rights of their airlines. It can also introduce the Fly Nigeria Act to enforce those travelling on government expense to patronise Nigerian airlines or their code sharing partners.
But the truth is that Nigerian government does not support Nigerian airlines. In fact, top government officials introduce harsh laws to make Nigerian airlines fail to give way to foreign airlines, that have fully taken over the Nigerian market.


This is one of the hurdles the plan to have a national carrier is facing. The major reason why government has so far failed to establish a national carrier is because it failed to take easy way out by building a national or flag carrier with the most promising Nigerian airline, Arik; rather government in its last attempt chose Aero which neither has the desired fleet nor the routes, with only a local experience. The attempt failed and industry insiders say that another attempt that excludes utilising the existing major carrier that already has international routes experience may also fail. But what is certain is that Nigeria needs a national carrier or empowered flag carrier to get back to reckoning in the African and world air transport market.

Government’s Complacency
Government’s ineptitude and alleged corruption seem to have infected the attitude of Nigerians about what they have. When Arik Air announced on Tuesday in Lagos that it would start flying to Dubai in July, the colour of the questions asked the management of the airline captured the pessimism of Nigerians: that an indigenous airline can hardly make it. And this brings to mind what travel expert, Ikechi Uko, said about Nigeria’s air transport market.


“First, the Nigerian person does not believe in the next Nigerian to give him a better service than the foreigner; even when that fact is untrue. A Nigerian believes that the grass is greener on the other side; he believes that anything foreign is better than anything Nigerian. So that belief of the Nigerian creates the first huddle for any Nigerian product to thrive.
“You have a situation where a Nigerian carrier like Arik has the best aircraft flying out of Lagos, yet most Nigerians do not patronise them the way they should, despite their having the best equipment, Airbus A340,500. That is the best plane out of Lagos but it doesn’t get the kind of traction that it ought to. So the Nigerian lacks the belief in the ability of other Nigerians to do well.

“To give credence to this, few months ago, Arik Air ground handling company withdrew its auxiliary power unit (APU) that provided power to its New York flight before take-off. As the flight was delayed before take-off, the passengers suffered scotching heat and almost led to a protest in the aircraft. The drama was posted on YouTube and other online media. Arik Air was vehemently attacked. But about 10 days ago British Airways delayed its flight for 48 hours when its flight’s fuel compartment cap was damaged. The passengers stayed overnight before they could be given accommodation and on the day they would be travelling the scheduled flight of the day was given precedence before the passengers that waited for two days. This was not posted on YouTube, besides the personal experiences narrated by some passengers, the media gave it a passing glance.”
Uko also noted: “A Nigerian would prefer to represent a foreign interest and destroy his own brother’s ability to thrive well, so franchising thrives in Nigeria because Nigerians are willing to represent foreign interests. And when a foreign organisation has a strong Nigerian personality behind him, he will always do better than the Nigerian. That’s why some people are promoting the Fly Nigeria Act. At least it makes it a law and criminalises the use of foreign brand when a local brand is available.

Colonial Mentality
The above observation encapsulates the attitude the Nigerian government bequeathed to the citizenry. Government do not really protect its own. And that explains why government gave out 80 BASA with Nigerian carriers having less than three per cent stake. Now, when you hear a Nigerian say: “I can never fly any airline that is not Lufthansa,” it always derived from what the Managing Director of Arik Air, Chris Ndulue, and others refer to as colonial mentality.
While unveiling the plan to operate to Dubai on Tuesday, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Arik Air, Dr. Michael Arumemi –Ikhide, in response to questions on national carrier, said: “We have been aware of the plan to establish a national carrier. Arik Air is the only indigenous airline carrying out national service on the long haul market. We connect all airports in Nigeria from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to West and Central Africa,” adding that the airline is established for Nigeria for the aspirations of Nigerians in the air transport sector.
He also talked about what Nigeria is losing by government not supporting its own.
“There have been some discussions about the national carrier. As far as Arik is concerned, we are troubled. At the end of the day we have a huge market comprising 170 million Nigerians but the market penetration is limited. As the aviation sector develops, as Nigerians have more opportunities to travel it helps the socio economic and political integration of the nation. It stimulates businesses; it stimulates foreign direct investment, it stimulates social cohesion. We are all for anything that will improve the lives of our people and we have a role and a part to play in that.”

Arumemi –Ikhide, like many other Nigerians in the aviation sector, believes that the country is giving so much away for nothing by not supporting indigenous airlines and not establishing a national carrier or flag carrier with full government support.
“Why should we allow it, whether it is in this business or in other businesses, foreign institutions to come here and access our growing market, where the profits exist and the potential exist, they come here to access and repatriate those funds at will? Nigerians should be able to support Nigerian products if Nigerians are able to deliver in all industries.
What Arik is about is being able to show we can deliver a world class service. We can do as well, if not better than many of our foreign competitors. What does that mean? It means that jobs are created here. It means that the wealth circulates here. It means that opportunities circulate here, in this market; for our country for our people. It means that education, knowledge, skills develop here. That is what Arik is about.”

He said the promise Arik could make to Nigerians is: “We will not put ourselves forward and say we expect support because we are Nigerians; we want to deliver a service that makes you proud of being a Nigerian; that gives you the same opportunity, the same access that you will expect anywhere else, and even better. We will do this always with safety first.”
While Nigerians are bickering among themselves, foreign airlines are carting the nation’s wealth away. The country needs to develop a national carrier in order to move towards redemption of the air transport sector.