No plan to sell airports - FG

07.02.2008

MINISTER of State for Air Transportation, Mr. Felix Hyat, on Wednesday in Abuja said there were no plans to sell the country’s airports.

Hyat, who made this known at an interactive session with newsmen, was reacting to speculation in the media to that effect.

He said the government was worried by the state of the country’s airports and would soon come up with blue print to transform the aviation industry.

He said a ministerial committee had already been set up to work out modalities for the implementation of the programme.

“The move is aimed at making the sector one of the best in Africa,’’ he said. Hyat added that some of the country’s airports needed to be expanded to accommodate the increase in the volume of traffic.

“For instance, how do you expect an airport that was built 30 years ago for small aircraft to be able to cope with the increase in volume of traffic without being expanded.

“There has to be commensurate expansion in equipment and infrastructure and we need money to do this. All these pose great challenges to the aviation sector and the ministry cannot do it alone,’’ he said.

In view of this, Hyat said government would partner with the private sector to achieve the objective.

“This is what obtains in other parts of the world. If we relinquish the development of airports to the private sector over a period of eight years, then government can channel its resources to other sectors of the economy,’’ he said.