Admin l Monday, August 13, 2018
LAGOS, Nigeria – Grand father of Nigerian comedy, Alibaba has is not happy about the sorry state of the aviation industry in Nigeria. Formerly known as Nigerian Airways, VanginNigeria and Air Nigeria, the airline recently changed its name to Nigerian Air and was launched in far away london.
But the comedian made comparison of the Nigeria Airways as it was then known in 1985 with fleets of about 27 aircrafts with Emirates that had just three aircraft that same year. But today, the story is different Nigerian Air as it is now known has 0 aircraft, while Emirates has a fleet of 256 aircrafts.
While unveiling the new name, at the Farnborough Air Show in London in July, the Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika spoke with a lot of enthusiasm but since then nothing has happened with many saying that Nigerian Air existed only on Facebook.
But prior to the launch, Sirika said, “I am very pleased to tell you that we are finally on track to launching a new national flag carrier for our country, Nigeria Air. We are all fully committed to fulfilling the campaign promise made by our President, Muhammadu Buhari, in 2015. We are aiming to launch Nigeria Air by the end of this year.
“We obtained the Certificate of Compliance from the Nigerian Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission two weeks ago and can now go into the investor search. I am confident that we will have a well-run national flag carrier that is a global player, compliant with international safety standards and one which has the customer at its heart. We hope to establish an airline that communicates the essence of our beautiful country; an airline we can all be proud of”, he said, adding that Nigerian youths were asked for their input in order to come up with a name for the new flag carrier, adding that the ministry’s Facebook page and website engaged over 400,000 people.
He said the ministry is currently running an aviation road map that includes airport concession, aerotropolis, an aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul centre, agro allied terminals, the national carrier and an aircraft leasing company.
It is meant to be Public Private Partnership arrangement with Nigeria owning just 5 percent in shareholding. According to Senator, Hadi Sirika, the total capital involved amounts to US$300 million while the berthing cost is US$8 million.
