HAIRMAN House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji has said that the lower legislative chamber will audit foreign airlines operating in the country to ascertain the number of Nigerians they employed as part of their cabin staff and technical crew.

Nnaji who disclosed this in a statement in Abuja said the parliament would also be interested in finding out the percentage of their tickets that are sold by local travel agents and at what commission

Nnaji stated that the audit would be done through the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority,  (NCAA) to ensure that Nigeria is not shortchanged in any way.

He noted that the country has been over-generous to the airlines with unrestricted access to the Nigerian travel market which they must reciprocate by engaging indigenous pilots, engineers, and licensed cabin crew into their technical staff

“Most of the foreign airlines are granted multiple entry points into the country, so as representatives of the people, we will be interested in knowing how such gestures reflect in our economy and labour force.

“It is equally important that we know the percentage of their tickets that are sold by our local agents so that we ensure that what obtains in other climes is the same here,” Nnaji further stressed.

The House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Aviation emphatically stated that if it was found out that the foreign airlines were not engaging Nigerians as part of their technical and cabin crew, the committee would seek to correct it so that young Nigerian professionals could be employed

Source: The Nation