President Muhammadu Buhari in the prelude to the 2015 general elections pledged to float a new national carrier as a replacement for the defunct Nigeria Airways.
Choice of Ethiopian Airline as the technical partner and major shareholder in Nigeria’s new national carrier has elicited more questions than handlers anticipated. Erstwhile advocates of the carrier are worried that Nigeria Air is walking the path of past mistakes and not in the long-term interest of the country. WOLE OYEBADE examines posers that should not be glossed over, if the new venture must last.
With Nigeria Air becoming a subsidiary of Ethiopian Airline already, what fate awaits Nigeria’s several Bilateral Air Service Agreements with other countries and existing local airlines in the feisty competitive air transport sector? Who are these other local investors? At what cost are their equities and in whose interest?Clearly, almost all industry stakeholders are unanimous on the need for a new national carrier after the hurried liquidation of Nigeria Airways in 2004.
The ministry, in disclosing the “preferred bidders” also announced the trio of SAHCO, MRS and the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority as custodian of 46 per cent private sector equities. But barely 24 hours later, the ministry issued a rejoinder that NSIA was included in error. Iyayi said to accord unfettered access in the name of technical partnership to a co-competitor that already has multiple entries into Nigeria, “smirks of deceit and the entire process opaque, with no strategic sense in it.”
By the partnership design already made known, ET is expected to deploy three Boeing 737-800 aircraft on domestic routes with Ethiopian crew onboard, and with no financial contribution. Ojikutu’s worry is not unconnected with the BASA rules that were invoked against Virgin Nigeria’s operations that prevented it from flying Nigerians to the United States. Since the British carrier, Virgin Atlantic , owned the dominant stake in VN, its Lagos-U.S. operations by VN were seen as VA attempting to gain entry into the U.S. through the back door.
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