ABUJA: The Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Captain Hamisu Yadudu, has disclosed that most Nigerian young pilots are generally unemployed due to lack of experience.
This is just as he pointed out that lack of pedestal to launch their career as well as inadequate airlines and aircrafts are some other reasons for the high unemployment rate.
The FAAN MD made these disclosures on Tuesday in Abuja at the 7th edition of the Aviation Workers’ Week with the theme ” Contributions of a National Carrier to the Socio-economic Development of Nigeria”.
According to him, “The pilots we have are generally unemployed because they do not have experience. The younger ones are not experienced.
“You cannot have pilots that are not trained, for us to have pilots flying, we need to have enough airlines and aircrafts. When we have pilots that are not trained, they are almost like no pilots again.
“Flying is a profession that the more you fly, the more you get experience, the more seniority and the more accomplished you get. So the new ones need the pedestal for them to launch their careers and they do not have enough right now”, he remarked.
He noted that with the reactivation of the National Carrier, there will be a proper platform for these crop of pilots to launch their careers effectively.
“The National Carrier will create jobs and also help to train pilots, pilot training is a necessity in the aviation industry”, he noted. “So, we believe with the National Carrier, there will be a proper platform for them to launch their careers effectively and that is the big difference.”
Reacting to the question on how soon the National Carrier will take off, he said they are working on it.
“We had a time frame two years ago but we had issues. We are trying to make sure that our time frame remains respected and we stick to it and that is why we don’t want to make it public but we have gone very far”, he ended.
