Civil Society Organizations, (CSOs), have called on President Bola Tinubu to support indigenous airline operators through tax to ensure they are not run out of business by the ongoing price war among airlines plying international routes hence strengthening the naira.
Under the auspices of the National Civil Society Council of Nigeria, (NCSCN), the CSOs said local airlines who had attempted to ply the international routes in the had it rough as they were forced out of business through the ongoing cut throat aero politics of pricing by foreign airlines.
At a media briefing in Abuja, Executive Director of the group, Blessing Akinlosotu, said that the federal government must do all it can to protect local airlines like Air Peace who have ventured into the Lagos-London route with tax waivers as this will not only strengthen the fledgling naira, but also open business frontiers for other Nigerian airlines into other international routes.
He said “The Federal Government and all well-meaning Nigerians must rise up to save our most patriotic and progressive indigenous airline operators like Air Peace from this international Aero-politics and pricing warfare by foreign airlines.
“Air Peace and other local airline operators should be granted at least a year’s tax waiver going by their patriotism.
“Some Countries’ economy depend and thrive mainly on the Aviation Industry, with Ethiopia as good example. this yet untapped Industry can surprisingly revamp the Nation’s ailing economy, considering the volume of citizens that travel in and out of the country on daily basis.”
Akinlosotu said that the foreign airlines are threatened by the rising profile and business strategies of Nigerian operators who are beginning to make inroads and running flights from Nigeria to countries like China, UAE, Israel, Brazil, South Africa and India among others.
He pointed that the recent development in the aviation industry has exposed the alarming exploitations of Nigeria and Nigerians,
“The ongoing dramatic pricing war occasioned by the entry of the Air Peace into the Lagos-London Route, has opened a large can of worms and exposed decades long economic sabotage and unacceptable exploitation of Nigeria by Foreign Airline Operators in various international routes.
“It is an incontrovertible fact acknowledged across the globe, that Nigerians are some of the most travelled and travelling demography in the world.
“With a massive population of over 70 million persons travelling in and out of the country annually accounting for over 70% of the entire travelling statistics of Africa, the aviation Industry in Nigeria is a highly critical sector to national development therefore, air travel must be elevated to the front burner of national discourse, and should no longer be treated as an exclusive concern of the elite,” he concludes.
