Airline ticket sales hit N10.5bn in 7 months

Airline ticket sales hit N10.5bn in 7 months
  October 23, 2015 
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, revealed yesterday that foreign and domestic airlines operating in the country sold N10.5 billion tickets to their passengers between January and July, 2015.
 The Director-General of NCAA, Capt. Usman Muhtar, stated this while speaking at the 21st Annual Seminar of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents, LAAC in Lagos with the theme, “Achieving a Win-Win Aviation Sector in Nigeria”.
This was also as Muhtar revealed that, a total of 28 countries are either seeking or renegotiating Bilateral Air Services Agreement, BASA with Nigeria, signposting Nigeria’s viable investment status.
 Giving a breakdown, Muhtar stated that over N2 billion was realised from local ticket sales while foreign airline ticket sales was N8billionn within the period under review.
“From January to July this year, the total amount of tickets sold on the domestic routes was N2,352,011,595, while the international operators sold N8,176,919,415, within the same period.
“The total volume of passengers airlifted from January to July 2015 by domestic operators was 6,061,740 passengers while their foreign counterpart freighted 2,341,748 within similar period.
“It is instructive to note that this result will have been better but for the transition period and elections which always restrict wide scale travel,” said.
 The NCAA director-general, represented by Capt. Sidi Abdullahi, Director of Operations and Training, NCAA, said there was incontrovertible evidence that Nigeria’s air transport sector had witnessed increasing growth in recent years.
 He said, “Several foreign airlines are finding Nigeria an investor’s basket. A total number of 15 countries have so far indicated their preparedness to sign Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) with our country.”
According to him, 13 others are on the threshold waiting for renegotiation of their existing BASAs.
 Muhtar urged the various aviation agencies to collaborate toward ensuring that Nigeria performs excellently at the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO, audit in November.
 Also speaking, Mrs Binta Bello, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation, said the theme of the seminar could not be more apt at this time that the sector was undergoing reforms in all its ramifications.
 Bello said:”As you are all aware, the Ministry was recently directed by President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately kick-start the process of re-establishing a national carrier for the nation.
“Rather than sit in our offices at the ministry to take decisions on the model of a national carrier the nation should operate, a ministerial committee made up of diverse professionals from both the public and private sectors was set up to advice the government.
“The committee recently submitted its report and the ministry is waiting for direction from the government on the matter,” Bello said.
 She commended LAAC for giving aviation stakeholders a platform to articulate ideas on how to move the industry forward and assured the league of the ministry’s continuous support.