The National President of the Unemployed Licensed Pilots Association of Nigeria, Capt. Kenneth Nogie has advised stakeholders in the Nigerian aviation sector to invest more in airline expansion.
He said this while answering questions from our correspondent in his office in Lagos, last week.
He said ‘’it is time to invest in Nigeria Aviation, through Airline expansion but the question remains how to do so in a manner that presents a decent risk profile and give a decent return.”
According to Nogie the Airline Expansion will reduce the number of unemployed indigenous licensed pilots and engineers numbering over 800 in the country adding that such expansion will create airline workshop centers that will engage unemployed pilots in and more revenue will be generated in the industry.
He said this can be achieved through master plan and implementation of enabling policies that will engage both foreign and indigenous pilots in and not foreigners alone taking up the jobs of indigenes which he described as unfair.
He noted that the location of Nigeria needs direct flights to Europe, South Africa, North Africa and the US which are the key whilst that of the middle East carries so that they can gain from Asia bound traffic, buts there is getting around the fact that the location of Nigeria in the world lends itself to direct point to point flight like other emerging economy and this in turn means a national Airline could do very indeed if it is set up with a low cost structure from the outset, and that would be worth investing in.
