The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, announced on Wednesday the suspension of the planned national carrier, Nigeria Air.
The minister tweeted on his Twitter handle, @hadisirika: “I regret to announce that the Federal Executive Council has taken the tough decision to suspend the National Carrier Project in the interim. All commitments due will be honoured. We thank the public for the support as always.”
Before the sudden disclosure, the Federal Government has in the past few months raised stakeholders’ hope about its determination to refloat a national airline.
Sirika had in July told the global aviation stakeholders that the December 2018 take off date would not be shifted as government was already finalizing discussions with private investors on how to raise funds for the proposed airline.
Specifically, he disclosed that the project would cost about US$300 million while the berthing cost is US$8 million, adding that that the national carrier would be private sector-driven, with government owning only five percent of the shareholding.
He hinted also that the Federal Government was talking to other prospective investors in addition to Boeing about using airbus in its fleet.
Although the reasons why the take off of the project was rescheduled were not made public, industry analysts believe that the suspension of the take off date indefinitely may not be unconnected with inability of the government to agree to proposals by private investors on how the airline would be operated.
