Nigeria's long-awaited national carrier, Nigerian Air, may finally take flight in April 2022, as the government has set April 2022 as the launch date. Hadi Sirika, the country's Minister of Aviation, made the announcement on November 24 following the week's Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the Minister, the government will own 5% of the company, Nigerian entrepreneurs will own 46%, and the remaining 49% will be reserved for yet-to-be-assigned strategic equity partners, including foreign investors. Sirika also stated that when the national carrier is operational, it will create approximately 70.000 jobs for Nigerians.
Sirika was given permission to begin the processes for establishing a private-sector-driven national carrier, which gained traction early last year, six years after the idea was conceived. The total cost of the aviation sector revival projects, including the establishment of a private sector-driven national carrier, would be N27 billion. The minister announced in May that a preferred partner had been chosen.
The Ministry of Aviation was in charge of overseeing the entire project, which had a March 2021 completion date. The debate over a national carrier for Nigeria will never die, regardless of which side or position one takes. It is a position shared by both pessimists and optimists. Sirika, on his verified Twitter account, stated in February 2020, "The new approved Aviation Roadmap is on track," adding, "we had investor conference yesterday as promised."
Shortlisted bidders
Sirika revealed that bidders had been shortlisted, emphasizing that the final stretch of the road, which includes the national carrier and Aerospace University, is already running business cases. There are indications that Nigeria may have selected EgyptAir consortium and Ethiopian Airlines to set up an aviation leasing company as part of the government's plan to overhaul the country's aviation sector.
Sirika recently stated that any airline that operates at that level must support the national economy with $450 million GDP for 200 million people and must be competitively equipped. "Eighty percent of the international airlines that have dominated Africa are non-African." We expected an airline to take up the challenge in light of the AU Agenda 2063, the Single African Aviation Market.
lowering capital flight
Many people believe that establishing a national airline will encourage the establishment of maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities in Nigeria, which will help to reduce capital flight and, in turn, create jobs. Nigeria's MRO facilities, as well as the $190 million that came with them, vanished with the country's previous national carrier, Air Nigeria, in 2012.
The third issue with not having a national carrier is that the government's signed Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) are underutilized. These treaties enable international commercial air transport between countries.
Nigeria has signed 78 of these, but they favor other countries, in part because Nigeria lacks a national carrier to reciprocate. A national carrier will allow more players to fly competitive routes, lowering the exorbitant airfares in Nigeria's aviation sector.
Plans that are guarded
The Nigerian government pursued the project of launching a new carrier quietly. This resulted in the project's spectacular collapse three years ago under controversial circumstances, leaving many who had hoped for it disappointed and looking like a project doomed from the start. As a result, the government chose "a preferred partner just as it has begun talks with the partner as they are nearing the end of Full Business Scale" (FBS).
While EgyptAir is collaborating with Ghana to establish a low-cost airline, and thus a national airline for Ghana, Qatar Air is heavily investing in RwandAir by investing in their airport and the East African airline. Qatar Air is also in discussions with Air Côte d'Ivoire about making the country a hub for the carrier in West Africa.
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