In a few months, the Federal Government—through the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development—will sign an agreement with Algeria to establish a direct flight path between the two nations.
This was disclosed by Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, during a recent visit to his office by a group from Algeria, which was escorted by the Algerian Ambassador to Nigeria.
Press Release
NIGERIA TO SIGN A DIRECT FLIGHT AGREEMENT WITH ALGERIA
… As Keyamo receives charted fellowship
In an exciting development for global connectivity, the Federal Government is set to finalize arrangements to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Algeria… pic.twitter.com/bjl1lwCNsg
— Fed Min of Info & Nat’l Orien (@FMINONigeria) November 8, 2023
Sani Datti, the head of press and public affairs at the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, made this announcement in a news release.
In order to revitalize the BASA, which hasn’t been used in a long time, Keyamo revealed that a group from Algeria had contacted Nigeria in recent weeks regarding the reopening of the route between Algiers and Lagos.
“Although Nigeria has always had a Bilateral Air Service Agreement with Algeria (BASA) for decades. However, we haven’t taken advantage of the agreement. That agreement specifies the routes between Algiers and Lagos. Luckily, for both country is a symbiotic relationship.”
“Today they are here with a memorandum of understanding specifying, although in the spirit of opening up the sky in Africa, they want to add Abuja to their route and also give us the second largest city in Algeria in place of reciprocity for us to fly with our Local airline and that city is Oran,” Keyamo explained.
The minister restated the administration of President Tinubu’s pledge to safeguard domestic airlines.
He claimed to have told the Algerian team about reciprocity for Nigerian domestic carriers, to which they acquiesced with pleasure.
Keyamo went on to say that the process of reopening aviation routes between the two nations would be expedited and that the Federal Government would review the specifics of the agreement presented by the Algerian team.
Regarding the timing of the Memorandum of Understanding signing, the minister stated that it would take place at an international event or on a set date in Nigeria.
According to Keyamo,
“As a government, we are going to quickly look at this MoU from the face of it we have no serious objection to it but we have a normal bureaucratic process that has to pass through as quickly as possible.”
“We are going to fix a day either here in Nigeria or international forum for the signing. We are very happy to have Air Algeria back on the soil of Nigeria.
We want competition, we want the price of air tickets to go down for the benefit of Nigeria. This is a symbiotic relationship; it is beneficial to Algeria and beneficial to Nigeria.”
The flight agreement between Algeria and Nigeria, according to Mr. Hocine Latli, the Algerian ambassador to Nigeria, would rekindle the two nations’ vibrant partnership and cooperation.
“You can’t have a tied partnership if you do not have a direct flight between the two countries, saying today we are trying to solve this problem of direct flight and restart the dynamic partnership and cooperation between the two countries, especially in the next few months”
“So, it is important today that we have reached a common point that the Hon Minister of Aviation and Aerospace has accepted the opening of direct flight from Algiers to Nigeria” he stated.
