The Federal Government has declared that the incessant flight delays and cancellations by domestic airlines are due to the failure of the carriers to upgrade their flight equipment.
It also stated that most of the airlines had not adequately trained their pilots to take advantage of the latest Instrument Landing Systems deployed at airports by the Federal Government.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, divulged this in Abuja during the public presentation of the 2022 Seasonal Climate Prediction and the 2021 State of the Climate in Nigeria, put together by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency.
The National Assembly Joint Committee on Aviation recently threatened to pass legislation that would authorize foreign airlines to fly domestic routes to check the abuse of passengers’ rights by indigenous carriers, following repeated complaints of flight delays and cancellations.
Reacting to the concerns, Sirika explained that the Federal Government on its part had tried to provide globally acceptable equipment to aid flight activities, but blamed airlines for not upgrading theirs.
He said, “We put Category-3 ILS (Instrument Landing System) that you can use to land in 0.00hours. Unfortunately, some of the airlines or most of the airlines have not upgraded their aeroplanes and trained their pilots to take advantage of this equipment to be able to land.
“So we’ve done our bit and we also want to call on operators to please do the same in the interest of safety and efficiency of our industry.”
