Worried by the incessant issues of flight cancellations and delays across the country, the federal government has flagged off a new era of insurance regulation for leased aircraft that would ensure access to aircraft all over the world, thereby making planes available to Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON).
Speaking at the flag office ceremony, the minister of aviation and aerospace development, Festus Keyamo said: “We are very concerned about issues of delays and cancellations of flights, but we know that this has to do with the capacities of the local operators, each of their individual capacities, to also get access to aircraft.
“Listen, we know it is not fun also for a private business to be canceling its flights delaying its flight. It’s not fun on their part. They are not sadists. I’m sorry, but I have to say this too. They are not sadists.
There’s a problem about capacity. They have a problem, and government needs to look into those problems, try and solve those problems, and then we will now hold them accountable.”
“Nobody wanted to bring an aircraft here.
Nobody wanted to bring an aircraft here because of insurance policies, because of lack of confidence in our judicial system, lack of confidence in our various government agencies to also ensure and guarantee safety of their equipment here.
“But then you can see that one by one, we have addressed most of these problems. There’s still work to be done, but we are trudging on.”
Speaking at the event, the representative of AON, Obiora Okonkwo welcomed the new development, noting that it would improve their operations.
According to him, ” what we are seeing here today is another great milestone from a listening minister. A listening minister who is very passionate about the industry. It is another milestone from a listening minister who is very passionate about this aviation sector.
It is also fulfilling part of the promise that he has made to us based on our own understanding with him, which is policy number one, policy number two, policy number three. We are very grateful for the effort and we are happy with the outcome. We have no doubt that this will take us to where we are going.
“We are very happy that the future will be very, very great with this. Thank you, minister. We have no doubt that this will not be the end of the new effort.”
