Make Nigeria Air a reality

Expectations over the actualisation of the new national airline for Nigeria heightened with the approval penultimate week of the April 2022 take-off date by the Federal Executive Council (FEC). The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, had announced at the meeting that the new airline will “hit the sky by April 2022”. According to him, the new airline will take off with leased aircraft for a start, and will be run by a private company in which the federal government shall retain a minority stake of 5% and leave 49% for Nigerian investors while the remaining 46% shall be thrown open to yet to be determined investors likely to be from outside the country.

It is easily recalled that the matter of a new national airline for Nigeria has been trending for some time, even as it has attracted vigorous controversy at every stage of the build-up of its advocacy. The controversies have been generated by the country’s experience with national airlines in the past with the case of the defunct Nigeria Airways serving as a sore point of reference. Founded in 1958, it ceased operating in 2003, after 43 years of early successful operation and latter day insolvency. It needs to be appreciated that during its hey days Nigeria Airways owned as many as 30 operational aircraft, comprising a variety of vessels such as large body Boeing 737 and 747, Vickers VC 10, Airbus 310, and the last ever built iconic McDonnel Douglas DC 10. But that was before the plagues of mismanagement, corruption, over staffing and other factors derailed it into attendant rising debts and eventual insolvency.

All of these factors took their toll on the company and saw to its failure as a business entity. At the time of its closure, Nigeria Airways was owing as much $528,000,000. Beyond its humongous debt burden, it had a poor safety record, with operational incontinences reducing its fleet to a single own aircraft, and two leased ones which provided skeletal services.

Meanwhile, the country’s desire for a national carrier did not die with the close of Nigeria Airways, but found expression in a new collaboration with Virgin Atlantic to birth Virgin Nigeria, the successor national airline. This new airline lasted from 2004 to 2012, when it was closed but under a new ownership structure as Jimoh Ibrahim bought majority share in Virgin Nigeria on June 2, 2010 and rebranded it to Air Nigeria. The airline under Jimoh Ibrahim faced several safety and operational challenges leading to its grounding by the management on September 10, 2012.

Following the sad end of Air Nigeria, the Nigerian government suspended all considerations in respect of a national airline until the new dispensation came under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. To underscore the commitment of the administration to the launch of a new national carrier, the administration has so far secured as much as N14.7 billion in three years budget allocations, with N6.25 billion so far disbursed for consultancy and advisory services while it has also penciled down as technical partners some globally operating airlines such as Qatar Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines.

Against the backdrop of the foregoing, it is clear that the Buhari administration remains fully committed to the launch of a new national airline, especially as it is one of his electoral campaign promises. That notwithstanding, Nigerians expect that in the process of launching the new airline, the lessons of the past failure will be taken into consideration, especially as the global aviation industry has taken a new shape while the country is not disposed to operate any other white elephant project in the name of chasing  a nebulous national ego trip.   It is important to find out why the effort to launch the project about two years ago failed, so that any hiccup that could arise will be eliminated on time. Also, it is curious that the federal government owns only 5 per cent of this project. It is hoped that that decision will at the end prove to be in the overall interest of the country. Furthermore, we call for diligent investigation and scrutiny to ensure that no partner brought on board this project is of questionable character. We also call for transparency in the bidding process. This must not be another wild goose chase; all efforts should be made to realize this project.