The Federal Government through Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) will continue to support Gambia and other needy nations in the training of meteorological technicians to highlight the importance attached to the contribution of meteorology to sustainable socio-economic development, as well as safety of citizens.

The Honourable Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika stated this at the inaugural graduation ceremony of middle level meteorological technicians trained by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMet) held in Banjul, The Gambia.

He noted that “Aviation is a serious business with critical safety requirements and socio-economic impacts. Hence, personnel working on this sector must be highly skilled and competent”.

A statement by the Director, Public Affairs, Ministry of Aviation, James Odaudu quotes the Minister as saying that one of the instruments of the partnership was through the World Meteorological Organization Regional Training Centres and affiliated training institutes which W.M.O. encouraged member countries to close the gap through increased cooperation and collective partnership such as the ongoing one between Nigeria and Gambia.

Hadi Sirika disclosed that the Niigerian Meteorological Agency (Nimet) has done this due to huge support from Federal Government of Nigeria through the Ministry of Aviation via robust budgetary provisions. As most of the operational funding for the Agency were derived from allocation from the contributory service basket provided to the Aviation Industry by the Agencies under the ministry.
Sirika gave kudos to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) fir championing and supporting countries to effectively engage in Public Private Partnerships (PPP).

“This is because the future of service provision and user interface should effectively move from a linear type of value chain to an interactive environment where systems, data, solutions, and end users are iteratively engaged, and users are contributing significantly toinformation management and weather & climate service-level products. These will contribute to capabilities towards meeting global targets of the sustainable development goals”.

“This vision is realisable where regular meetings with vulnerable sectors to promote interaction and strengthen the provision and utilisation of meteorological services exist. As a strategy to further strengthen the expansion of weather and climate services to vulnerable sectors and the user community, NiMet therefore realizes that partnerships and engagement with the private sector cannot be overemphasized”.

The Nigerian Government, the Minister said, has the appropriate Legal Framework that enables the NiMet to participate in collaborative and effective Public-Private-Engagements (PPEs).

“In the phase of dwindling revenue by Governments worsened by the COVID￾19 pandemic, the importance of PPE cannot be overemphasised. Once, Trust has been established with appropriate legal document such as Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that is clear on the role of individual parties and sharing formula of all expected benefits, PPE is the way to go. This is another area; Nigeria can be of help”.

He equally commended the Government of The Gambia for taking the initiative to conceive the concept that led to the graduation ceremony, and the Minister of Fisheries and Water Resources for making excellent arrangements to ensure the success of the capacity development initiative.

“The presence of dignitaries here today is a testament to the critical value of the training programme and its impacts on the people and the developmental process in The Gambia. This goes to highlight the importance attached to contributions of meteorology to sustainable socio-economic development, as well as safety of citizens
of this great Country”

Senator Sirika, Prof Matazu (DG NiMet) and other members of the Nigerian delegation during a courtesy visit to President Adama Barrow in Banjul

On his part, the Minister, Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources, Gambia Hon. James Furmus Peter Gomez, commended the Federal Government of Nigeria, saying the training partnership will further strengthen the cordial and fruitful bi-lateral ties that exists between the Department of Water Resources and NiMet and by extension the two countries.

“The challenge of improving the resilience of communities to climate vulnerabilities, risks and disasters is a key element in the strategies and solutions envisioned by the Government of The Gambia, as stated in the National Development Plan(NDP) as well as in both the Agriculture & Natural Resources and National Climate Change Policies. While the answer seems to be the existence of dedicated structures with an organizational system, the provision of adapted sectoral services to cope with extreme weather and climate risks is becoming increasingly important”

He added that Gambia authority noted the efforts Nigeria was making towards the capacity development of its personnel in fundamental aspects of meteorological observations and forecasting, as well as quality management system, all geared towards meeting the standard set by WMO and ICAO.

“On behalf of the Government and People of the Republic of The Gambia, I once again extend our sincere appreciation and gratitude to the Government of Federal Republic of Nigeria for the bi-lateral assistance it has been rendering in many ways to help improve the standard of the Meteorological servicesin The Gambia. We particularly note the efforts you have been making towards the capacity development of our personnel in fundamental aspects of meteorological observations and forecasting, as well as quality management system, all geared towards meeting the standard set by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)”.

By Chris Isidore, CNN Business

– Americans making summer vacation plans are about to find airfare costs are near or even above pre-pandemic levels, according to the nation’s major airlines.
Executives from most of the major carriers said the recovery in domestic leisure travel is already here. That means yields, which measure how much passengers pay for every mile traveled, are up more than the airlines had been forecasting.
“Domestic leisure [travel] will be 100% restored by June, with … bookings ahead of 2019 levels and yields essentially recovered,” said Glen Hauenstein, president of Delta Air Lines, speaking at the Wolfe Research conference.
The airlines are being cautious about bringing back too much supply of flights too quickly, especially since the leisure fares booked well in advance of travel are not as lucrative as the business travel booked at the last minute. Business travel and international travel have yet to come back, although airlines said they’re seeing signs of a future recovery there as well.
United, which is due to speak at the conference later in the day, said in a filing that overall yields on tickets booked this month for travel in May and June are already near 2019 levels. That’s even with reduced demand for business travel — so it means that domestic leisure yields are already ahead of what was booked in 2019.
Profitability and the business travel problems
This doesn’t mean the airlines are back to being profitable, although several have said they have stopped burning through the cash the way they did for most of 2020 and early 2021.
It’s tough to be profitable with just domestic leisure travelers, said Philip Baggaley, chief credit analyst covering airlines for Standard & Poor’s. Yet getting this part of their business back is still important.
“There certainly has been a surge in domestic leisure bookings, and the yields they’ve been able to achieve,” he said. “They’re not filling up as much of the plane, but in a very large and important part of their business, they’re doing just fine.”
The airlines expect business travel will start to return once offices that had employees working remotely begin to reopen. It didn’t make sense, of course, to schedule business trips if the customer whom a business traveler wants to meet with hasn’t yet returned to an office.
“We still anticipate business travel returns in the fall and beyond,” said Vasu Raja, chief revenue officer at American. “Many corporations are at the nascent stages of coming back to the office.”
That’s why airlines won’t be back to the same number of flights this summer as they offered in the summer of 2019 before the pandemic. But they’re seeing strong demand for the seats they are offering, thanks to vacation travelers’ pent-up demand.
“Right now…the only thing that is keeping us from being at 2019 booking levels is where is we’re constricting supply,” said Raja.
The bad news for the vacation travelers is good news for the airlines and their investors. Shares of American, Delta, United and most other US airlines were up between 2% and 3% in midday trading.
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