National carrier: We only see the flag, we’ve not seen any substance-NUATE scribe
The general secretary of the National Union of Air Transports Employees (NUATE) Comrade Ocheme Abah has described as unserious the plan by the Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika to float a national carrier in the country.
Speaking to aviation reporters in his office at the airport, Abah explained that the plan of the project has not been made known to them except the minister himself.
Abah while analyzing the activities of the minister since appointed, noted that only the flag of the airline was visible without any concrete substance on ground to show the seriousness of the government towards unveiling the proposed airline.
“Looking at the core issues on a yearly basis we have been hearing, we don’t seem to have made any progress on those core issues the signpost, the flagships of the administration; we don’t seem to have made appreciable progress along those lines or at least within our awareness”
On airport development, the NUATE scribe said for the past five years that the direction of airport development remained unknown especially with the inherited work on four international airports in terms of upgrading.
“Looking at the state of the airports whether it is going private or PPP whichever direction, it’s the core issue we have been hearing about the past 5 years, also we don’t know where it is now. We are looking at the situation he inherited concerning the 4 principal airports in terms of their upgrading, we seem to be about halfway and a little about halfway there.”
He scored the government 80 per cent in the training of personnel and equipping of various aviation laboratories such as that of Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology and the approval for the second Abuja airport runway
“The Abuja runway that was completed, that’s a lot of progress. Now the contract has been awarded to the 2nd runway for the design of the second runway, so you see a lot of progress. So inside our Aviation, there is a lot of progress, there is no denying that fact.”
