The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, on Wednesday unveiled an impending codeshare agreement between Emirates Airlines and several Nigerian carriers.
Codeshare is an interline partnership where one carrier markets service and places its code on another carrier’s flights.
This offers carriers an opportunity to provide service to destinations not in their route structure.
Meanwhile, under the ‘code share’ agreement which is common in the international aviation sector, the originating airline and the supporting airline agree on a formula for sharing the ticket cost.
Keyamo made this known shortly after a joint meeting with Emirates officials on arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
Speaking with journalists, the minister said, the ministry has secured some code-sharing agreements for local operators and has agreed with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that domestic airlines must have the right of first refusal during the code-share agreement.
“There would be a lot of code sharing in this respect. As I speak with you, Emirates is speaking to many of our local operators now for the benefit of our local aviation industry”, he said.
Keyamo added, “When Emirates suspended operations, some airlines reaped the benefits. Many foreign airlines increased their frequencies to Nigeria and many increased their prices because seats and flights were not available.
“We fought for this because Dubai in particular is a major hub of the world. It links virtually every country in the world. I have not seen any major country that is not linked to Dubai. So, for Nigerian travellers, it is easy to access any part of the world by simply travelling to Dubai and connecting to that country”.
The minister added that there would be more options for Nigerian travellers, insisting that when the federal government signed the Bilateral Air Service Agreements with the UAE, it was to also secure the route for local operators.
“Our agreement with UAE is that domestic airlines can fly to any destination in UAE and vice versa. First of all, we know that we have a variety of choices now. We have more competition on different international routes now. This is what it is all about; ensuring healthy competition which leads to competitive prices for the benefit of the Nigerian people”, the minister said.
