Nigeria Air set to launch by December this year as aviation minister says everything is in place

NATIONAL carrier Nigeria Air is now due to commence operations in December this year after aviation minister Senator Hadi Sirika revealed that all the plans put on place for the project remain valid and the project is on course.

Senator Hadi Sirika first announced plans for the airline at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK in 2018, unveiling an ambitious programme that would create a giant African carrier. Nigeria Air was to fly to 80 different destinations and would have had a fleet of 30 aircraft but the project was later scrapped after it was discovered that no budgetary provision had been made for the venture.

Since then, the Nigerian government has been desperately trying revive the project, wooing investors and foreign airlines to take out stakes in the venture. In April this year, former Virgin Nigeria Airways boss Captain Dapo Olumide was named as the interim managing director of Nigeria Air as plans to float the new airline with Qatar Airways as a major stakeholder were announced.

Addressing the Senate Committee on Aviation yesterday, Senator Sirika, insisted that there is no going back on the planned take-off of the national carrier, stressing the economic and social benefits of the project. Domestic airline operators in Nigeria had protested against the project at the National Assembly on the grounds  of making Ethiopian Airline the major investor in the business.

Senator Sirika said: “Nigeria Air is a company that is registered and known to the laws of Nigeria which will become by the God’s grace the much awaited airline. It is going to happen by the grace of God between now and December of this year and it will fly and also compete fairly with all of those existing airlines.

“The intent is not to kill any business, the intent is to help to promote all businesses to be able to provide the needed service and employ our people. This is the intent and the more the merrier as the more that you have people doing business, then the one that does it better takes advantage and they give more service and the people get served better.

“If everyone of them is doing very well without any favouritism, then it means that the competition will be healthy and will bring down the price of tickets and increase the propensity to fly and make more people to fly and then make more money for the airlines and give more service to the country Nigeria. The idea is a very good one."

In their submissions before the committee, the domestic airline operators said they are not against the national carrier but against Ethiopian Airlines as a major investor with 49% equity share. Roland Iyayi, the president of the Domestic Airline Operators, said the project as conceived today, is inimical to domestic operators.

Mr Iyayi said: “Ethiopia does not have an agenda to grow Nigeria as the agenda of Ethiopia over the years, has been on aviation colonialism in Africa. The national carrier or Nigeria Air project if well implemented, would be a good legacy but as it is presently conceived, it will end up to be legacy that will lead to demise of local airlines."