In an exciting development for global connectivity, the Federal Government is to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Algeria for a direct flight route between the two countries in a few months to come, the Hon Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo has said.
Keyamo at a meeting with a visiting delegation from Algeria led by the Algeria Ambassador to Nigeria stated, “Although Nigeria has always had a Bilateral Air Service Agreement with Algeria (BASA) for decades. However, we haven’t been taken advantage of the agreement. That agreement actually specifies the routes between Algiers and Lagos. Luckily, for both country is a symbiotic relationship.”
He explained that the Algeria delegation in the past weeks has reached out to Nigeria for the reopening of the route between Algiers and Lagos to revive the BASA that hasn’t been taken advantage of over the years.
“Today they are here with a memorandum of understanding specifying, although in the spirit of opening up the sky in Africa, they want to add Abuja to their route and also give us the second largest city in Algeria in place of reciprocity for us to fly with our local airline and that city is Oran”.
He further stated “We have insisted that for those who come to us for such an agreement, one of the focal points of this administration is to protect our local airline operators; protect their business, and promote their business. We raised the case of reciprocity for our local operators which they have gladly acceded to”
“As a government, we are going to quickly look at this MoU from the face of it. We have no serious objection to it but we have a normal bureaucratic process that has to pass through as quickly as possible.”
He said “We are going to fix a day either here in Nigeria or an international forum for the signing. We are very happy to have Air Algeria back on the soil of Nigeria. We want competition, we want the price of air tickets to go down for the benefit of Nigeria. This is a symbiotic relationship; it is beneficial to Algeria and beneficial to Nigeria.”
Ambassador of Algeria, Hocine Latli said the two countries can’t have a tied partnership if there is no direct flight between the two countries, saying the direct flight problem will be resolved in the next few months to restart the dynamic partnership and cooperation between the two countries.
“So, it is important today that we have reached a common point that the Hon Minister of Aviation and Aerospace has accepted the opening of direct flight from Algiers to Nigeria” he stated.
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