Keyamo gives airlines one week to agree debt repayment plans

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has given airlines operating in Nigeria one week to agree on repayment plans with aviation agencies over their outstanding debts.

The directive was issued on Thursday at an emergency stakeholders’ meeting convened by the minister to resolve the industrial dispute between aviation unions and some airline operators.

The meeting followed the suspension of industrial action by aviation unions on Tuesday, August 11, after the dispute disrupted flight operations at some airports.

Representatives of airlines, aviation unions and heads of aviation agencies attended the meeting.

According to a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mahmud Adam Kambari, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority and other aviation agencies were directed to obtain repayment schedules from indebted airlines.

The statement said the repayment plans must take into account the airlines’ operating costs and prevailing economic conditions.

It added that Directors of Finance and Accounts of the aviation agencies would meet individually with affected airlines and agree on realistic repayment schedules within one week.

The resolution is intended to address the airlines’ financial obligations while preventing the dispute from escalating into further industrial action and disruptions to air travel.

The stakeholders also reached an agreement on the contentious issue of unionisation among airline workers.

Keyamo reaffirmed workers’ right to choose whether to belong to trade unions, stressing that the decision must be made by individual workers and not their employers.

Consequently, the NCAA was directed to allow aviation unions direct access to workers across airlines solely to distribute unionisation forms through which employees could indicate whether they wished to join a union.

The ministry warned that airlines that obstructed unions from accessing workers for that purpose would face sanctions from the NCAA.

The stakeholders further agreed to reconvene in one month to assess progress on the resolutions and review developments in the aviation sector.

The ministry described the resolutions as collective decisions reached by all parties at the meeting.

Keyamo assured stakeholders of the Federal Government’s commitment to maintaining a safe, efficient and sustainable aviation industry, in line with President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s position on the sector.

The latest intervention followed the temporary suspension of the unions’ industrial action, which had disrupted flight operations at some airports and raised concerns over further disruptions to air travel.