Fed Govt plans better facilities for private, chartered jets

THE Federal Government will provide more facilities at the nation’s airports for the use of private and charter jets, aviation Minister Princess Stella Oduah has said.

She spoke in after inaugurating the General Aviation Terminal for private operators at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

She said the need to upgrade such special facilities for charter and private jets stemmed from the rise in charter operators, which had risen to 50 and is projected to increase before the end of the year.

A new template, she said, was being packaged by theMinistry of Aviation and other aeronautical authorities to improve operations.

This, she said, would involve the terms of operations of such operators, which would smoothen the grey areas.

The minister explained that as operational facilities are upgraded at airports, it is expected that more private operators would take advantage of this to facilitate the movement of persons and their businesses.

Oduah said no limit had been set for the private jets operating in the country, as the new rule to be rolled out would bring about an increase in that arm of the air transportation.

She said at no time did the government roll out any regulation set a limit on the number of private jets.

Oduah spoke of the government’s plans to continue to upgrade airport infrastructure to accommodate more players either in the scheduled or charter category.

She said: “The truth is that we had to have a General Aviation Terminal which supports aviation business. That wasn’t in existence yet the business is growing. Government would like the business to grow far more than what we now have and the only way we can achieve that growth is to provide infrastructure, the policy and the procedure to drive such a business.

“That is what we have done. We have also finished the general aviation policy.Hopefully by next week, we will have a meeting with private jet operators. There, they would know the policy that guides what they are supposed to do, how they are supposed to do it.

“We do have a lot of grey areas in our general aviation policy but we will remove all the grey areas in the policy and make them operational.

‘’Currently, we have about 50 private jets. We are estimating that by next year, we are tripling that number.But if we will do that, then we need a larger General Aviation Terminal larger than this. We are looking at cost in the margin of about five hundred million naira.”

She also spoke of plans to intervene in the challenges of aviation fuel, affirming that soon the product would be available at airports at competitive prices.

Oduah said: “We would work in conjunction with the NNPC as part of the way forward. We have selected approved vendors who would guarantee us and allow us to benchmark the purchases. You have to buy fuel in advance; that means there must be a certain a buying process. This takes time because the people you are buying from have to agree. More infrastructure have to be put in place too. If you don’t put all these in place, it wouldn’t work. For instance, if you are in Yola, there should be a depot there to have guaranteed stock to replenish on time. This gives you price control.

“Nigerians should look forward to more competitive pricing system that would ensure they pay what they are supposed to pay. Nothing more, nothing less.“