By Solomon Asowata
Lagos – The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has summoned trade unions in the sector for a meeting on Oct.18 to deliberate on the looming crisis in the industry.
Mr Olayinka Abioye, General Secretary, the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday.
NAN reports that the committee had said it would convene a public hearing to discuss the proposed concession of some airport terminals by the Federal Government, among other issues.
Abioye told NAN that the unions would continue to oppose the concession of the Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt Airports.
He said:” We have been officially invited to appear between Oct. 18 and. Oct. 20 before the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation.
“The letter said we are to deliberate on the looming crisis in the industry but we know that airports concession is one of the things we will be talking about.
“We are profoundly against the concession of our airports because that is not the best option.
“If there are areas of weakness, it is not concession that will stop the problems. We need to sit down together, look at such areas and proffer workable solutions to such problems.”
According to him, there are about 80 per cent of activities that have been concessioned at the airports but over 40 per cent are currently embroiled in litigation.
“So, we want to avoid the mistakes of the past and move forward because our industry is the engine room of the nation’s economy and we cannot afford to play politics with it, he said.