The Nigerian government is considering restricting British Airways’ operations at the country’s tier-one airports if the United Kingdom fails to honour its Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) with Nigeria.
This move is in response to the UK's restriction of Air Peace, Nigeria's flagship carrier, from flying to London's Heathrow Airport due to a slot allocation issue.
The Federal Government has warned that it may be forced to restrict British Airways from operating at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos if the UK fails to address the slot issue affecting Nigerian airlines.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, disclosed that the ministry has written to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to allow Air Peace to fly to Heathrow Airport in London, as stipulated in the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA).
Air Peace has flown its passengers to Gatwick Airport, London, since it began its flight operation in March 2024. Since it commenced operations, Air Peace has had conflicts with the UK authorities in a bid to get a slot at Heathrow.
Keyamo expressed frustration that British Airways enjoys unfettered access to MMIA, while Nigerian airlines are denied similar privileges in the UK. According to him, countries must abide by BASA arrangements, warning that failure to do so may lead to reactive action from the Nigerian government. He said,
“We have already written to the United Kingdom to give Nigerian carriers, especially Air Peace Heathrow Airport, which is a tier one airport, just as we have British Airways, using our Lagos airport."
"We may as well give BA Ilorin to operate to. When we asked for Heathrow Airport, you’re telling us to go to a slot committee. Who does that? Air Peace I can tell you is on its way to Heathrow away from Gatwick."
At the 28th edition of the League of Aviation and Airport Correspondents (LAAC) Conference, Keyamo warned of future retaliation, if the Nigeria airline was not given same treatment received by the British airline in Nigeria.
He noted that the ministry was awaiting a response from the ministry in the UK adding that insisted that countries must abide by the BASA arrangement that Nigeria reached with their governments.
As per him, the local operators are struggling to cover their routes locally, not to talk of our international routes; Air France is coming here 10 times a week, we are not going to Paris, Lufthansa is coming here, we are not going to Frankfurt, Delta and United from America are all coming here, but we are not reciprocating. Even, South African Airways is coming here, we are not going there.
“We only managed to have Air Peace in London and to Gatwick, but we are pushing for them to take us to Heathrow. You can’t tell us you have a slot committee. Your airport operator should know that you have an existing relationship and they should respect it."
“For connectivity, people prefer Heathrow. That is an airport you can have an airline to codeshare with so that there can be connectivity.”
The minister stressed that the failure to do this might lead to a negative reaction from the Nigerian government. He also hinted that if the UK refuses, Nigeria may consider allowing British Airways to operate at Ilorin Airport instead.
He invited investors to take advantage of opportunities in the aviation industry, particularly in maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities, he added further:
“For us, we are looking at various issues; MROs. People are already talking to us, we don’t want to let the cat out of the bag. Very soon we are going to advertise to call for partnership in the project.
“For our banks, financial institutions, financers, and others, don’t say foreigners are coming to take your business, it’s a big business. If we bring them in, we will take all the aircraft in West and Central Africa and even a part of Southern Africa if we can get the MRO into Nigeria.
“The Arabs, Chinese, Europeans and Americans; they all want to invest and they are talking to us. And something about MRO is that you can’t invest it in an independent environment, but an existing airport. You will need a runway for an aircraft to land. So, you need to talk to us to give you land within our international airports.”
The minister called on Nigerian airlines to demonstrate their capacity to reciprocate these agreements and grow their operations.
“We need to support our airlines to grow but they must show capacity to reciprocate many of the agreements,” he said. “Air Peace is on its way to Heathrow away from Gatwick, and we will look into so many agreements that are not working in the interest of our airlines.”
