Nigeria Air To Kick-Off Within 8 Weeks –Aviation Minister

The minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has said all preparations for the establishment of the national carrier, Nigeria Air, have been concluded and the airline will kick-off in six to eight weeks.

This is even as the minister said the airline has commenced recruitment of pilots, cabin crew and the aircraft would be coming into the country in a week’s time.

The minister, who stated this at a press briefing in Abuja yesterday, said the full business case for the establishment of the airline would be expected to be approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The minister said: “After a careful, detailed and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC)  governed selection process, Ethiopian Airlines (ET) consortium has been selected as preferred bidder, offering an owner consortium of three Nigerian investors MRS, SAHCO and the Nigerian Sovereign Fund (46 per cent) FGN owning five per cent and ET 49 per cent.

“The consortium has been subject to a due diligence process, after which the contract will be negotiated between the consortium and the FGN, leading to a Full Business Case, which will be expected to be approved Federal Executive Council (FEC).

We expect this process to take 6-8 weeks.”

On the money spent so far, the minister said; “The money spent for the launch of Nigeria Air, (about N400 million) for all the requirements to establish an AOC and be admitted starting an airline operation, is well within the five per cent capital investment of the federal government of Nigeria, that will be overall needed to establish the national carrier initially for the AOC approval and everything else required by stringent national aviation regulations, as prescribed in the FEC approved Outline Business Case (OBC).