The new national carrier, the ‘Nigeria Air’ that was unveiled in 2018 at the Farnborough International Airshow, London, will take off in the first quarter of 2022.
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika made the announcement while briefing state house correspondents after he weekly Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, May 19th.
The Minister said that the pandemic caused the delay in the establishment of the national carrier from 2021 to 2022.
He added that the carrier will likely operate at lower tariffs and is expected to be a viable airline which will potentially cater to millions of travellers not only in Nigeria, but across Africa.
The Aviation Ministry is expected to return to the Council in 2 weeks with a business case for approval.
According to Sirika, “We are coming back to council, hopefully, in the next two weeks to present the memo on the national carrier.
“We went to council to approve the outline business case for the carrier, then, the council raised some questions and asked us o go and look at the memo again and bring it back.
“So, once it comes back and the outline business case is approved by council, we will go to the full business case which is now going to the market and establishing the national carrier.”
In 2018, when the national carrier was launched, Hadi Sirika said that ti would be private sector-led with government owning not more than 5%. He added that government would not be involved in running the airline.