"Nigeria has always had a Bilateral Air Service Agreement with Algeria (BASA) for decades, however, they have not taken advantage of the agreement," the minister said.
Nigeria's Minister of Aviation Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, says the federal government is set to finalise arrangements to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Algeria for a direct flight route between both countries.
According to a statement issued Wednesday by the ministry's Head of Press and Public Affairs, Sani Datti, the minister disclosed the move during a meeting with the Algerian delegation in Abuja recently.
"In an exciting development for global connectivity, the Federal Government is set to finalise arrangements to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Algeria for a direct flight route between the two countries in a few months to come," the statement said.
According to the statement, Mr Keyamo noted that Nigeria has had a Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) with Algeria for decades but authorities have not taken advantage of the agreement.
"That agreement actually specifies the routes between Algiers and Lagos. Luckily, for both countries there is a symbiotic relationship," he said.
The minister explained that the Algeria delegation in the past weeks has reached out to Nigeria for the reopening of the route between Algiers and Lagos to revive the BASA. "Today they are here with a memorandum of understanding specifying, although in the spirit of opening up the sky in Africa, they want to add Abuja to their route and also give us the second largest city in Algeria in place of reciprocity for us to fly with our Local airline and that city is Oran," the statement quoted Mr Keyamo as saying.
"We have insisted that for those who come to us for such an agreement, one of the focal points of this administration is to protect our Local airline operators; protect their business, and to promote their business. We raised the case of reciprocity for our local operators which they have gladly acceded to."
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"As a government, we are going to quickly look at this MoU from the face of it. We have no serious objection to it but we have a normal bureaucratic process that has to pass through as quickly as possible."
The official explained that the government will schedule a day either here in Nigeria or at an international forum for the signing of the agreement.
"We are very happy to have Air Algeria back on the soil of Nigeria. We want competition; we want the price of air tickets to go down for the benefit of Nigeria. This is a symbiotic relationship; it is beneficial to Algeria and beneficial to Nigeria," he said.
In his remarks, Hocine Latli, Ambassador of Algeria in Nigeria, who led the delegation, said both countries cannot have a tied partnership if they do not have a direct flight between the two countries.
"So, it is important today that we have reached a common point that the Hon Minister of Aviation and Aerospace has accepted the opening of direct flight from Algiers to Nigeria," the ambassador said.
