Policy formulations, generally, are mainly the responsibilities of the government sectors or cabinet ministries. Ministries, on the other hand, design and translate government vision on economic and social policies into guidelines or programmes for the public sectors, represented by the parastatals, to execute or implement.The Ministry of Aviation, for instance, is one whose successive policies have been emasculating the parastatals under it into taking actions that are, most times, damaging to the economic well being of the nation in general; and in particular, to the financial stability of the responsible parastatals.Globally, the growth in all the modes of transportation and the experiences of maintaining them as parallel systems is leading to the quest for the integration of their policies. Countries whose infrastructures are expanding fast but for whom development funds are limited now find it possible to create a single intermodal transportation policy and ministry, which offers savings in terms of cost and reduces unnecessary duplication of efforts. At this time of transformation of government policies, we must de-emphasise the hold of ministries in the sector from the management of the parastatals. The ministry, or probably as a department if fused into an intermodal Ministry of Transportation with the railway, maritime and waterway, should allow the infrastructure development or service agencies such as the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency; and the regulatory agencies like Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, to function according to the law that established them without interference. That probably was the line of thought when, in 2007, the Ministry of Aviation was fused into the Ministry of Transportation; just as the ministries of Communication and Information were fused into one. The aim then, I suppose, was not necessarily to reduce the number of cabinet ministries or ministers, but primarily to allow the newly established regulatory agencies to operate with unhindered lateral oversight function.The perceived financial solvency of the parastatals operating without any form of financial or economic audit under the Ministry of Aviation appears to be the attraction in the ministry and that also explains the high turnover of ministers and other political appointees in the sector. For instance, in the last 12 years, the ministry has had to contend with nine ministersan average of one minister every one and a half years; while some of the primary agencies under it have also had seven CEOs each within the same period. As one of the modes of transportation, aviation does not need a separate ministry, especially where there is an established regulatory agency that has met the international best practices and standards with a category one status. Government action and bearing therefore should only be in two pivotal areas: the formulation of aviation safety and security policies and regulations. What has developed and is still developing worldwide is a mixed system in government policy of injecting recoverable subsidy into the sector; a commercialised autonomous public sector and private enterprise participation. This system is one in which the government injects recoverable subsidy that contributes towards furnishing the basic air transportation safety and security system such as the air navigational surveillance and communication systems and terminal security facilities; while the public sector and the private enterprises provide the terminal operations facilities and services, air carrier equipments and both operate the systems within government regulations. To avoid the pitfalls of the past, we must concern ourselves with the designing of achievable policies and programmes that would enable us to meet contemporary visions for the industry in the 21st Century - policies that provide baselines of implementation for the parastatals to develop infrastructures necessary to meet the government vision and objectives. Such policies should attract private investments in the development of terminal facilities that will provide quick facilitation and adequate comfort safety and security for the travelling passengers. The policies should also allow for intermodal transportation arrangement with municipal or state authorities for the international airports. With passenger traffic increasing at a rate of 15-20 per cent annually, and with the poor road network and a railway system comatose, the pressure on air transportation will continue to rise beyond the present rate and there would be need to expand airport terminal buildings as well as the aircraft parking areas at some of these airports. Government policy must encourage airlines to promote low fare tickets by removing taxes and charges on some dormant airports like Ibadan, Akure, Ilorin, Katsina, Bauchi, Makurdi, etc., for five years. The policy must review the multiple landing points granted to foreign airlines, with a view to providing markets and extra earnings for the domestic airlines. Reduce the hold of Federal Government on airport to only four international airports of Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt. Use passengers and air traffic movement at these airports as reasons and hand over the remaining city airports to state and private investments. Airline capitalisation policy should no longer be based on monetary terms but factored on fleet expansion, equipment and routes. Therefore, for any airline to be eligible for Airline Operating License and operate domestic route only, it must have minimum of five aircrafts and operate not more than three domestic routes. An airline wishing to operate regional, continental or international routes in addition to the domestic routes should have minimum of 10 aircrafts and should operate not more than six routes, including the domestic routes. Airlines wishing to operate domestic, regional, continental and international routes should have minimum of 20 aircrafts and could operate as much as 10 routes, including the domestic routes.The development or expansion of airports infrastructure depends on the availability of land. Unfortunately, most lands at the older airports have been encroached upon by governments, local authorities and private individuals. In some serious cases, the security of the airports is being threatened with uncontrolled encroachment and urban development. We need aggressive policy to recover most of these lands if any meaningful development is to be achieved. Group Captain Ojikutu (retd), is former Military Commandant, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos
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