The Chairman of Air Peace Limited, Mr Allen Onyema, has said that it is more expensive to fly to some African nations like Gabon, Niger, Togo and Cote D Ivoire than the United Kingdom (UK).
Mr Onyema made this disclosure in an interview with a television crew last week.
Onyema explained that some African nations like Togo and Ivory Coast charge Nigerian airlines as much as $10,000 to land, while they do not face similar actions in Nigeria.
According to him, the attitude of these African nations contravened the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) treaty, as the nations involved have signed the treaty to freely give access to member states.
“When I applied to Ivory Coast, I was frustrated. Togo said her space will not be open to us because they want to protect their airlines. That did not change until I decided to go to court to stop an airline coming from that place.
When they give you this permit, the type of charges they slam on you is exorbitant. It is like asking us to pay about $10,000 each time we land in the nations. How many people do we have on board to make such payments? But the Federal Government is doing something about it now,” Mr Onyema explained.
What you should know
- To date, 34 countries have signed up to the SAATM representing over 80% of the existing aviation market in Africa.
- The countries are Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea (Bissau), Guinée, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sénégal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tchad, Togo, Zimbabwe.