The Nigerian government is to sign a memorandum of understanding with Algeria for a direct flight between the two countries.
According to a statement issued by the Nigerian Ministry of Aviation Aerospace Development’s head of press and public affairs, Sani Datti, the minister of the ministry, Festus Keyamo, disclosed this during a meeting with an Algerian delegation looking into the flight in Abuja recently.
"Nigeria has had a bilateral air service agreement (Basa) with Algeria for decades, but the two countries have not taken advantage of the agreement," Keyamo said.
"To develop global connectivity, the Nigerian Federal Government is set to finalise arrangements to sign a memorandum of understanding with Algeria for a direct flight route between the two countries in a few months’ time," the statement said.
Commenting on the Basa with Algeria, Keyama said: "That agreement actually specifies the routes between Algiers and Lagos, which meant a symbolic relationship had existed that merely had to be adjusted," he said.
The minister explained that the Algerian delegation had reached out to Nigeria for the reopening of the route between Algiers and Lagos to revive the Basa.
"In the spirit of opening up the skies in Africa, they want to add Abuja to their routes, which will link us to the second-largest city in Algeria, Oran," the statement quoted Keyamo as saying.
"We insisted that one of the focal points of this administration is to protect our local airline operators and promote their business, and we raised the case of reciprocity for our local airline operators, which they have gladly acceded to.
"As a government, we have no objection to it but we have a normal bureaucratic process that it has to pass through as quickly as possible.
"We are very happy to have Air Algeria back on Nigerian soil. We want competition; we want the price of air tickets to go down for the benefit of Nigerians. This is a relationship that is beneficial to Algeria and Nigeria," he said.
In his remarks, Hocine Latli, Ambassador of Algeria in Nigeria, who led the delegation, said both countries could not have a meaningful partnership if they did not have a direct flight between them.
"So, it is important that we have reached an agreement that will lead to the start of direct flights from Algiers to Nigeria," the ambassador said.
