New national carrier likely as FG/Ethiopian Airlines pact crumbles

The Federal Government may soon unveil a new national carrier following the suspension of the Nigeria Air project.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Dr. Ibrahim Abubakar Kana, gave the hint while clarifying an earlier comment attributed to him that he had the mandate of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to deliver a new national carrier.

Daily Trust reported Kana as denying ever saying the suspended Nigeria Air project with the Ethiopian Airlines providing the technical support would be revived.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, on assumption of office in 2023 suspended the project.

He also declared that the Ethiopian Airlines deal on Nigeria Air was for Nigeria.

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Keyamo had said, “This is the Ethiopian Air agreement here. And you’ll be shocked if you look at this. What it simply says is that a foreign government should come and take over our national carrier.

“That is the long and short of the story, because Ethiopian Air was a single major shareholder in that deal.

“Ethiopian Air is owned by another government in Africa. It’s the same thing they have done to Togo. Togo is a small country. They have done it with Asky owned by Ethiopian Air. We cannot be Togo. I apologise, whoever I’m talking to but we cannot be Togo.

“We are big; we are big; we are ambitious. We cannot give up our entire ecosystem to another entity. Because what would have happened in that case is that the Ethiopian government would now be a complete beneficiary of all our BASA (Bilateral Air Service Agreement) routes.”

Stakeholders, industry players and analysts have expressed concerns over the failure of all the attempts at bringing back the national carrier since the demise of Nigeria Airways in 2004 despite millions of dollars and billions of naira sunk into it.

Former Minister Hadi Sirika in response to a report that N85bn was expended on the Nigeria Air project stated that only N3bn was spent on the project.

The former minister said: “Between the years 2016-2023, all the money budgeted for Nigeria Air, was about N5 billion but not all of it was released. Perhaps about N3 billion was released.

“Part of the N3 billion has so far been spent on the acquisition of offices, payments of consultancy fees, workers’ salaries and processing of Air Operators ‘Certificate (AOC).”

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In a statement yesterday, Kana confirmed that he had been inundated with inquiries about his reference to the revival of the National Carrier Project and needed to clarify the issue.

He said, “For the avoidance of doubt, I never said that there is a mandate to revive the botched Nigeria Air deal with Ethiopian airline. I received no such instruction.

“I was only referring to the general vision of the administration to still consider a National Carrier Project if it is favourable to the country and under the guidance and directives of Mr. President and the Honourable Minister of Aviation. I hope this clarifies all the ambiguities surrounding my earlier statement on this issue.”

From 2003 till date, virtually all the ministers of aviation that have served made attempts to bring back the national carrier with billions of naira spent on the various projects without giving an account of the money.

Daily Trust reported an aviation analyst, Group Capt. John Ojikutu, as saying instead of floating one national carrier, government should set up two flag carriers instead; one regional and continental and the other intercontinental.

He said, “This is what our contemporaries in the early times were doing. I will recommend Arik-Aero for the Regional-Continental and Air Peace-Ibom for the Intercontinental. Both would need foreign technical partners and investors but not from any of our competitors on the BASA Routes.

“First is to assess the local and foreign debts and assets of the airlines to the foreign investors and the domestic investors.”

He stated that both foreign and local investors should not have more than 30 per cent making 30 per cent in total while FG and the states or the six geographical areas should have 12% and the public through the Nigerian Stock Market 28% and the 40% balance should be for the airlines.

“Anything different from that cannot work and may not last,” he added.

New national carrier likely as FG/Ethiopian Airlines pact crumbles