The Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc. (nahco aviance) and Turkish Airlines have agreed to further strengthen their existing partnership to further ensure seamless importation and exportation of cargoes.
The group managing director and chief executive officer of nacho aviance, Mrs. Olatokunbo Fagbemi expressed the commitment at Iftar dinner organised for Turkish Airlines stakeholders in Lagos.
She said the partnership was about ensuring that the ground handling firm “does things in such a way that it is easy for Turkish Airlines to serve the clients and the shippers better and it is easy for the shippers to understand the activities of Turkish Airlines.”
She explained that with the partnership, imports and exports of cargoes would be seamless with nahco aviance being the go-between of the exporters, shippers and freight forwarders.
Furthermore, she said the ground handling company had been in business with Turkish Airline since 2006 and that the “solidification of this enterprise is because Turkish Airline is getting into some automation in its new terminal and nacho aviance also has started a transformation process that would continue for the next five years.
“This being the case, there is the need for all stakeholders to key into the transformation agenda with regards cargo to imports and exports.”
Speaking on what the company was doing to ensure export of cargo meets European Union standards, Fagbemi said since the beginning of the year, nacho aviance “has consistently engaged all its stakeholders and clients on the processes goods must go through to meet EU’s standard.
“We sometimes call the airlines and the shippers for us to ensure that this process is in line with the EU standard. The airlines and the shippers listen to each other. In Nigeria, there are lots of opportunities for exports that are not yet tapped. If an airline is coming with freighters, how much of the freighter’s space is being filled? The people that are in the room for this event are some of the people that will influence it to be filled. So, it is nice to have these engagements so we can benefit as a country. We are looking at how the country can benefit,” said Fagbemi.
She said Nigeria is blessed with lots of agricultural products that can be exported, but a lot of the produce is being destroyed because the exporters do not understand some of the things that they need to do.
“So, the engagement with stakeholders is just the beginning of several more that at the end of the day, the full benefits of export cargo can be tapped,” she added.
