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Aviation Workers Raise Alarm Over Imminent Extinction of Sector Aviation workers have called for the federal government to come to the rescue to prevent the total extinction of the sector, which they described as worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking behalf of the aviation workers, the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), an affiliate of Nigeria Labour Congress, declared that many of the airlines were already on life support prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Lagos-based Nigerian Tribune reported. The union stressed that many of the logistics and other allied companies — such as in-flight catering, flight support services, fuel supplies, etc. — were equally at the verge of winding up. Ocheme Aba, secretary-general of NUATE, while lamenting the precarious situation in which the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria had found itself, cited how the authority had been grappling with the heavy burden of maintaining 23 airports across Nigeria, though only two are viable — a responsibility he said was impossible to shirk due to the socioeconomic importance of maintaining all the airports. According to Aba, under these circumstances, the pandemic-imposed shutdown cannot but be seen as a killer punch against aviation, to the extent that aviation in Nigeria runs a very high risk of total collapse without urgent and substantial intervention, or bailout, from the federal government. While admitting that the situation currently faced by aviation was global, which he noted only heightened in Nigeria by historic factors, Aba added: “Based on empirical findings which support the crisis facing aviation organizations, various global institutions such as the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Air Transport Association, and even the International Labour Organization have all called on governments of all countries to render significant support to their aviation companies to cushion the losses in revenue occasioned by the pandemic.” “The United States of America, several European countries, including the United Kingdom, have already announced generous bailout packages for their aviation companies in response to the emergency,” Aba said. “These responses signpost the fact that there will be dire consequences should lethargy and indecision hold Nigeria back from towing this global trend.” The unionist said it was for the purpose of mitigating the imminent disaster that NUATE made an appeal to elicit Congress’ strong support and positive and urgent actions to prevail on federal government to hasten its steps towards releasing a bailout package for the aviation sector in Nigeria. However, he advised that the federal government should apply methodology that would ensure the mistake of the past is not repeated where airlines could not account for previous aviation intervention that ran into several billions of naira: “It must not be business as usual.” He noted that there had been two previous such financial interventions in the aviation sector in recent memory, both of which left much to be desired. In those instances, airlines like Arik Air and the now-defunct Kabo Air and Air Nigeria collected billions of naira supposedly for capital injection into their businesses, but the funds were misappropriated. “The promoters of these airlines then ran away with bloated personal bank accounts and they are walking free until today,” he said. “This was possible because the airlines were individually-owned enterprises without any discernible corporate governance structures. Unfortunately, this particular situation of the airlines, in terms of their ownership and governance structures, remains largely unchanged today. Therefore, if the same methodology as before were to be used, then we fear that the same undesirable result will accrue. This will be most unhelpful.” WI
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caribbean now CARICOM-Member States Plan to Open External Borders by June
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22 - MAY 21 - 27, 2020
Oliver Joseph, Grenada’s cabinet minister with ministerial responsibility for CARICOM, said that the plan is for CARICOM-member states to open external borders for regional travel only and not international air traffic for the first phase of reopening borders, which is tentatively set to be enforced in June. “What we are discussing is to first allow regional travel — that is, travel within the islands such as travel between Grenada and Trinidad or between Trinidad and Barbados,” said Joseph, who recently chaired the 50th meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development, according to a report in Now Grenada. “We are not looking at having international carriers come to the island yet.” During the virtual meeting, the council approved a strategy for the reopening of economies in the Caribbean community. The council is made up of trade ministers and officials agreed to a framework centered on the development and adherence to defined metrics related to the COVID-19 virus, which will guide in the reopening process. Grenada’s borders as well as many regional ports of entry and exit were closed in March as part of efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19. Like Grenada, the contagion was introduced to the country by infected travelers from the United Kingdom and the United States in mid-March. Grenada’s index case was a 50-year-old woman who traveled from the United Kingdom. WI
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