The minister of aviation and aerospace development, Mr Festus Keyamo met separately with union leaders and the governor of Niger State, Mr Uba Sani during the weekend to discuss matters affecting the aviation industry.
At a meeting with the joint aviation union leaders, the minister solicited their cooperation in ensuring industrial harmony.
While appreciating the unions’ support for the ministry so far, he appealed to them to sustain the tempo and pledged to work with them to achieve economic and human capital development.
The minister also pledged to attend to the unions’ demands expeditiously and asked the union leaders to make a detailed presentation of their demands and other observations in writing.
Earlier in his speech, the national president, Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), Mr Ahmadu Ilitrus had expressed optimism that Keyamo’s transparency and human right attributes “will be brought to bear in his present assignment.”
He enumerated the demands of the union to include pending relocation allowance for staff of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and Nigeria Safety and Investigation Bureau (NSIB); capacity building proposals from leadership of aviation unions; issues of inability of some agency to conduct the year 2023 promotional exercise; issues arising from tenure policy and retirement age of non-academic staff in the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT); Statutory 40% remittance to federation account from aviation agencies among others.
In his meeting with Sani, the minister pledged to improve the facilities at the Kaduna Airport.
The governor had told the minister about the level of infrastructural decay at the airport.
“The airport is an eyesore; no aircraft is landing there at the moment. I had to make this trip to your office so we can know what to do.”
Sani further said “anytime anyone is trying to fly into Kaduna, they see Kano Airport as alternative or make use of the NAF Base or the Zaria Air Wing.
“Right now, I have spoken to Air Peace and United Airline on the possibility of resuming flight operations at the airport but we found out there’s a need to upgrade and improve some of the facilities for effective aeronautical services,” Sani stated.
Responding, Keyamo promised to expedite action on improving facilities at the airport.
He also said he would take a tour of the airport for an on the spot assessment of the facilities.
“It it is very important that we make the Kaduna Airport fully operational because it is a good alternative to the Abuja Airport should anything happen,” he added.
