Nigerians, especially air travellers, have appealed to President Bola Tinubu to transform the nation’s aviation sector by making it compete with its equals across the globe by further injecting vibrancy into the industry.

In separate interviews at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Wednesday, they opined that focusing on infrastructure development in the aviation industry would attract investors and improve the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Sokoto-based APC stalwart, Musa Sarkin-Adar, said the industry had been mismanaged for a long time, and its potential needed to be adequately harnessed.

Mr Sarkin-Adar, a former lawmaker, pointed out that Nigerians should have leveraged the potential in the aviation sector.

“In the account of over 200 million people, we have less than 40 flights flying out of the country to international connections, which is an under-representation of the aviation industry,” stated Mr Sarkin-Adar.

The ex-legislator added, “For example, take Heathrow in London to JFK in New York; every 15 minutes, there is a flight originating from Heathrow to JFK, and there is equally another flight coming from JFK to Heathrow.”

He said Nigeria should have nothing less than 500 international flights daily.

Abdulmalik Jibreel, Abuja station manager of the Aero Contractors, advised the new regime to create jobs by building relevant industries nationwide to grow transportation.

Mr Jibreek said people were not doing well in the economy and could not travel anywhere and explained that government officials, not business people, occupied many flight seats, unlike in Europe, America and other places.

“People are not doing well in the economy. If the economy is doing very well, you will see everybody moving everywhere within Africa, Asia, Europe, America and Latin America,” added Mr Jibreek.

He believed that if there is political will towards industrialisation, the county will experience increased frequencies of local and international flights.

Some students, who arrived from Lagos, told journalists at Terminal C of the Abuja airport that the president ought to accelerate the expansion of Nigeria Air (proposed national carrier) and seek a reduction of air fares.

(NAN)