UNA Founder Commends PBAT’s Forex Policy, Keyamo’s CTC Practise Direction
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L-R Linus Awute Director of Administration; Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, OFR, Founder UNA; Mazi Osita Okonkwo, Executive Director, Chief Operating Officer, ED/COO, at the media chat to commemorate the 4th anniversary of UNA in Abuja
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, PBAT, has been highly commended for his result-oriented foreign policy and the monetary/economic policy which has made foreign exchange available for businesses to access and thrive.
Also isolated as praiseworthy in the execution of PBAT’s New Hope Agenda, is the diplomatic masterstroke pulled by Mr Festus Keyamo, which succeeded in domesticating the Cape Town Convention with its attendant sigh of relief from the burden domestic operators had hitherto been harshly subjected.
An operator, and the Founder of United Nigeria Airline, UNA, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, OFR, made the thrilling commendation on Wednesday, at the commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the promising airline startup.
The testimony to the federal government’s impressive performance as given by the Founder, UNA went thus, “by those policies that I had mentioned, the forex policy, the policy of domesticating Cape Town Convention, and then the new practice direction, all those things actually, had helped to reduce so many of the burden domestic operators hitherto grappled with”, he said.
Prof Okwonkwo further attested to the positive impact of government’s various interventions had on the entire value chain of the air transport industry in Nigeria.
He enthused that government policies “have opened up a new window for better relationships. Our reputation and integrity in the international aviation industry is better now. So we are happy with it”.
However, the Anambra State-born businessman explained that, “one thing that will help the growth of this industry will be for the government to develop the program that will give the window access to local operators to secure a single-digit loan”.
Okonkwo called on the federal government to prevail on the aviation agencies- NCAA, NAMA, FAAN, and Customs- not only to review their charges but to expunge most of their tariffs that when critically viewed tantamount to multiple taxation.
Another thorn in the flesh of operators Okonkwo identified as the unruly behaviour of some passengers. He said most of the extra services domestic operators avail passengers do not even obtain in the advanced climes.
Hence, he called for a massive public education of the flying public so that they could be acquainted with responsibilities on their part as passengers and both parties- airlines, and passengers- would know their obligations on different occasions that might arise.
Also speaking, the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, ED/COO, of UNA, Mazi Osita Okonkwo, said the airline had opened more routes across the country, and announced that it had added Benin, Kano and Sokoto on its route.
He also disclosed that UNA had recently renewed its certificate, while plans are afoot to commence regional and international operations.
The COO further disclosed that the airline’s engineers achieved a feat never witnessed in the industry in Nigeria, by changing an aircraft landing and nose gears without any foreign assistance.
He added that the UNA fleet expansion drive had yielded the acquisition of new planes while the airline plans to operate to 25 destinations by 2026.
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