Nigeria Air project take-off date has been suspended, as the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika announced the indefinite suspension of the Nigerian National Carrier a few hours ago.
The Nigeria Air which was much celebrated by the Minister and the ruling party of the All Progressives Congress (APC) earlier this year, seems to have closed shop a few month to the take-off date it intended to achieve , which was December of 2018.
Minister Hadi Sirika taking to his social media page, said:
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.
The Minister who gave this reason which is most likely to be funds and logistics or even political issue, had in July 2018 unveiled Nigeria Air as the national carrier at Farnborough, one of the biggest Airshows in the world an promised to pick up its first passengers in December 2018 five months after Nigeria Air logo unveiling. See some of the things said about Nigeria Air before the announcement its supension:
“Nigeria Air will have national carrier status and jointly owned by private sector but managed fully by private and run on a purely commercial basis. By year 5, it’s expected to be carrying over 4 million passengers and have a fleet of 30 modern aircraft.
It will be funded, stating that it would provide a $55m upfront grant in order to ensure the take-off of the airline this year 2018.
The FG also stated that it was not paying $300m for five per cent stake in the airline, as being speculated; adding that the $300m was the entire cash flow funding requirement of the carrier for a three-year period.”
All these huge talk on investment only to announce the project has been suspended clearly shows Nigeria irrespective of the political party seem cannot get anything right…I guess the PDP have been right all along doubting the feasibility of the project in just five months….