By Daniel Eteghe, with agency reports
Stakeholders in the aviation industry have collectively flayed the aviation roadmap introduced by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Aviation.

Many of the stakeholders who claimed that they were not involved in putting the document together pointed out that the document was invalid as the calibre of professionals that drew it could not be vouched for just as the roadmap only portend to handle some aspect of the industry without following the master plan of the airport.

They noted that the roadmap which shows the remodeling work of fingers D and E of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos lacks credibility as it ought to have followed the master plan which was required that work should begin from fingers A, B, C before going into D and E.

Speaking at the 18th LAAC seminar in Lagos with the theme: “Evolving a Roadmap for Transformation of the Air Transport Sector in Nigeria” Managing Director of Sabre Travel Network, West Africa, a United States-based airline Global Distribution System, Mr. Gbenga Olowo affirmed that the roadmap could not specifically stipulate what the aviation industry needs at the moment adding that the remodeling work was not the right thing to do as passengers were been inconvenienced unnecessarily.

“The remodeling that we are doing, I pity those doing that job because there is no alternative, what we should have done is to use canopy for our offices while the renovation work is going on. We did that in Liberia during the war, Bellview airline was flying there in the open fields. So we can use canopy for the airport and in six months time that airport will be ready”.

“I want to ask the government, how come we are remodeling fingers D and E, what is happening to the master plan. Why didn’t they start with the master plan A, B, C, get that completed in two years before going into D and E? Are we renovating the car parks both at International and GAT ground zero, does it include that in the remodeling work” Olowo asked.

According to him “The so called remodeling is not the answer at all, all our airports are below standards, the passengers are been inconvenienced and you ask them to move away all because you are doing ties. I pass through Air France in Paris every time, whenever there is a renovation work, that part of the airport is cut off, you just see blanket, you don’t know what is going on their and in another three months when you pass that part of the airport, you will marvel with the kind of work that they would have done”.

He however noted that if aviation will drive the economy of the country then the government has to think in the right direction, stressing that the roadmap should be made available to stakeholders in the industry for them to analyze it and put in their own input in order to key into the concept and the vision of the honourable minister of aviation, Princes Stella Oduah.

“We need those documents from the office of the Minister and the DG, those consultants, let them give us the documents so that we can analyze and understand the concept and the vision of the roadmap. I want to see the pattern of the roadmap and see how many passengers are flying now, how many aircraft we have, how many employees these airlines have. This is the kind of data that we should sit down and say what aviation in Nigeria is going to be in the year 2050” he affirmed.