Onyeama Hails President Tinubu, Keyamo For Signing Cape Town Convention Practice Directions

The Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has praised President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, as Nigeria signed Cape Town Convention (CTC) Practice Directions for the aviation sector.

Allen Onyema said the signing of the CTC Practice Directions is a revolution in the aviation sector.

He stated that the appointment of Keyamo as Aviation Minister was one of the best decisions the President made in his administration.

Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Sunday, on the benefits of Nigeria signing the Cape Town Convention (CTC) Practice Directions, Onyeama explained that the country’s aviation sector would benefit more from the signed agreement.

Onyeama said, “What he has done is nothing short of revolutionary. This is revolution, nothing short of revolution. It has never happened before to us. By midwifing the signing of this practice direction, he has kind of helped the airlines- the local airlines now to up their capacity.

“I said sometime ago and I told Mr. President when he invited me for Iftar, I told him, I said the ease of doing business in the Aviation sector has come back, thanks to the kind of appointment you made. Festus Keyamo is nothing short of awesome.

“Keyamo is causing a revolution. I told Mr. President there that when people were criticising Keyamo for going to Airbus, on the sideline, whatever they were doing there was just. The main thing that took him to Airbus was this kind of thing.

“It took him to Boeing three weeks ago, Air Peace was there with him in America, he was brokering all these. I told Mr. President that at the end of the day, you will celebrate making this guy your aviation minister. Festus Keyamo has been in the trenches out there trying to get this thing sorted, midwifed it, and the vice-president was there to make sure everything happened.”

The CEO of Air Peace noted that Nigerian aviation sector players can easily acquire a large number of airplanes at cheaper rates with the signed agreement.

He explained that it would give room for more interconnectedness in Nigeria. Onyeama added that the cost of airfares would also come down with the signed agreement.

According to him, Nigeria’s aviation sector businesses now have the opportunity to conquer West Africa and Central Africa aviation markets.

He said, “The money we use to buy one brand new plane can get me about 50 or 40 aircrafts on dry lease. With the signing of this practice direction now, it means the leasing world now will start leasing aircrafts to Nigeria.

“If I spent $80 million buying one of my brand new planes, I ordered 13 of the E2095, 5 have already come in. The amount of money expended on that 5 will give me about 200 aircraft. So, I don’t need to amass so much money now to start acquiring planes

“If every Nigerian – the least of Nigerian airlines, those with five planes or three planes, those with their three planes, the cost of acquiring those three aircraft, whether used or brand new, even used ones, could afford them 20 or 30 aircraft.

“It will help the entire Nigerian airline industry. We acquire this with ease. Now, because you’ve not expended a lot of money, you’re not paying interest at 35% for a huge sum of money, that will affect the bottom line positively, and bring the fare, the prices down appreciably.

“This will increase interconnectivity because you have a lot of planes. You don’t need to come to Abuja or Lagos from Port Harcourt to go to Kano. When you have so many plane flying, you can do Port-Harcourt-Kano direct. You can do Calabar-Enugu, you can do Enugu to Ilorin. You can do Yola to Maidiguri because you will be able to acquire the type of aircraft that will give you such stretch.

“The president has caused a revolution in the economy already with this. Once we move in, we are going to interconnect this country, we are going to open up this country, and that is opening up the economy, agric products will find their ways to the cities and other places.

“How about the west coast? We are going to dominate the entire West Coast and Central Africa. The resilience of the average Nigerian entrepreneur will not be called into question. What the President has done now was to give us that platform to explode. You will see what is going to happen.”