THE EDITOR: I read with great interest your business section commentary on the new Nigeria Air connection and felt that this too could be just another flashy signing ceremony and a symbolic gesture.

Former director of civil aviation Ramesh Lutchmedial and Dr Devant Maharaj, former transport minister in the Partnership government, were part of a high-powered delegation that negotiated an India/TT joint air services agreement. They met with Indian counterparts in 2012 to finalise arrangements to have Air India fly Delhi-Lagos-Brasilia-Port of Spain (PoS).

This arrangement was agreed upon after much deliberations and invaluable logistical contributions from officials of one of the world's largest airlines, Air India.

The idea, then, of flying from Lagos directly to PoS was dismissed because there are simply not enough passengers to make this commercially viable. Furthermore, Air India already flies to Lagos and including Brazil on the route has the additional benefits of targeting the largest Afro population domiciled outside of Africa.

Your article mentioned heritage and history as advantages for this Lagos-PoS direct flight. In the Kamla Persad-Bissessar government's proposal, the heritage and history of two "grandmother lands," India and Nigeria, would have added more value than the proposed Nigeria-PoS proposal. Add Brazil to that mix of passengers and you could not find a more practical and economically viable proposal.

I would like to know if a market survey was done before signing this deal with Nigeria and, if so, will the airline initially servicing this route be willing to subsidise the undertaking if it cannot get enough passengers to fill the plane. Similarly, cargo transportation would make sense only if there is enough trade at present between Nigeria and TT.

So, what happened to the Partnership proposal? Part of the answer to this could be found in the ten-page series of Mariano Brown's newspaper articles in which he focused on the failings of public servants to effectively carry out government's initiatives in a timely manner, and are either unwilling or incapable of executing investment proposals that are placed before them.

CHANDRADATH SINGH

former high commissioner to India

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