How Nigeria Air Went From 2023 Promises to 2025 Abandonment

On Friday, Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, announced that the federal government has officially abandoned the plan to pursue and establish Nigeria Air as the national carrier.

Keyamo had first announced the airline’s suspension on August 16, 2023, saying that it was not a true representation of Nigeria.

At the time, the minister said the airline never belonged to Nigeria. Nearly half of its fleet was owned by Ethiopian Airlines.

“It was never Air Nigeria. It was not Air Nigeria. That’s the truth. It was only painted Nigeria Air. It was Ethiopian Airlines trying to fly our flag. If it is so, why not allow our local plane to fly our flag? So nobody should dispute that it was Nigeria Air,” Keyamo said at the time.

“Nigeria Air must be indigenous, it must be only Nigeria or it must be for the full benefit of Nigeria. Not that 60 per cent of the profit is for another country. How does that benefit us? So It remains suspended.”

While addressing an audience at the launch of 100 Years of Civil Aviation in Nigeria: History, Issues and Prospects, a book written by Wole Shadare, Keyamo said that rather than push for the establishment of Nigeria Air, his ministry would support the growth of the local carriers with enabling policies.

“Our focus has shifted from the national carrier; we are now committed to promoting the growth of local operators through targeted policies,” Keyamo said.

Keyamo’s statement on the federal government’s official plans to dump the Nigeria Air project highlights another failed project national resources have been committed into.

The 2018 announcement

In July 2018, Hadi Sirika, the former Minister of Aviation, unveiled a project he called Nigeria Air at the Farnborough Air Show in England.

Sirika said that the Nigerian government would not interfere with the project, and investors would have full responsibility for it.

“This will be a national carrier that is private sector-led and driven. It is a business, not a social service. The government will not be involved in running it or deciding who runs it. The investors will have full responsibility for this,” Sirika said.

“The Nigerian Government will not own more than 5% (maximum) of the new national carrier. The government will not be involved in running it or deciding who runs it.”

Fraudulent 2023 Nigeria air Launch

Five years later in May 2023, just two days before the end of Buhari Muhammadu’s tenure as President, Sirika said that the project would be launched, and he showed to Nigerians what he said was Nigeria Air.

Sirika said that Ethiopian Airlines was a core investor and the project was expected to boost Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and create more jobs.

However, after the launch on May 26, 2023, stirred controversy. The aircraft presented as Nigeria Air was revealed to have been leased from Ethiopian Airlines for a few days and repainted in Nigeria Air colours. It returned to Ethiopian Airlines shortly after the event.

The backlash prompted the House of Representatives to launch an investigation into the project. During a hearing by the House Committee on Aviation in June 2023, it was revealed that the federal government had spent over N3 billion on the Nigeria Air initiative.

Meanwhile, another report states that N47.43 billion was allocated for the project in the 2019 Appropriation Bill.

The lawmakers described Sirika’s Nigeria Air launch as a “fraud” and said the airline’s unveiling was hurriedly executed without fulfilling regulatory requirements from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

Nigeria Air has now joined a list of abandoned projects implemented by the federal government.

FIJ reported how Nigeria Air struggled over time and the different ownerships it has had to assume.