The Chief executive officer of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has condemned the lack of government support for Nigerian airlines, and also lamented over what he called preferential treatment for foreign airlines on Nigerian soil at the detriment of local operators.

Onyema speaking on AriseNews Channel’s The Morning Show yesterday however, underscored a recent landmark deal signed by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the South African Civil Aviation Authority, saying the pact would aid aviation development in Africa. The two regulatory agencies signed the agreement during the African Aviation Summit in Abuja on Thursday. Speaking on the development, Onyema said: “Before now, if you’re a pilot in South Africa, you come to Nigeria, you start all over, validation and all sorts of things take time but what they’ve just done will help aviation development in Africa and we encourage other African countries to take a clue from this to make aviation business easier.”

The Air Peace boss urged the government to look into what is happening to Nigerian airlines’ trapped funds in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). “On the aviation side, charity begins at home. It is true that there are issues of trapped funds in Nigeria, but the local airlines also have trapped funds in the Central Bank,” he said.