BREAKING: After Initial Denial, FG Confirms Ethiopian Airlines As Technical Partner…
After the Federal Government had debunked the choice of Ethiopian Airlines as the technical partner in the formation of its national carrier, Nigeria Air, the government has finally picked the East African carrier as its preferred partner.
Also, the Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) Plc has emerged as among the three Nigerian investors in the national carrier that is scheduled to start very soon.
Sen. Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation made the announcement on Friday in Abuja at a media briefing.
It was also gathered that the impending airline would be launching with three wet-leased aircraft from Ethiopian Airlines, but would expand the fleet in the coming months to about 30 aircraft.
Sirika at a media briefing in Abuja said that the Request for Proposal (RFP) under the Public Private Participation (PPP) Act, governed by Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) was completed.
He insisted that Ethiopian Airlines was selected as a preferred bidder by the government after a careful, detailed and ICRC governed selection process, which also offered an owner consortium of three Nigerian investors MRS, SAHCO and the Nigerian Sovereign Fund (46 per cent), Federal Government owning 5 per cent and Ethiopian with 49 per cent.
He declared that the consortium had been subject to a due diligence process, after which the contract would be negotiated between the consortium and the government, thereby leading to a Full Business Case.
He said the full business case would be expected to be approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), stressing that the government expected the process to take six to eight weeks.
He added: “An interim Executive Team of highly skilled aviation experts has been working since February 2022 to set up all the necessary regulatory and industry requirements to launch the national carrier. All executives have been approved by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Air Transport License has been issued by NCAA, Nigeria Air (after having identified the first three aircraft) will now finalise all necessary Operation Manuals and then go through the inspection and approval process of NCAA.
“The money spent for the launch of Nigeria Air, for all the requirements to establish an AOC and be admitted starting an airline operation, is well within the 5% capital investment of the Federal Government of Nigeria, that will be overall needed to establish the national carrier initially for the AOC approval and everything else required by stringent national aviation regulations, as prescribed in the FEC approved Outline Business Case (OBC).
“This OBC is the milestone for the preferred Bidder Consortium and has been met by the submitted business plan of the preferred bidder. It is the overall share capital of around $300 million, provided by the preferred bidder that will launch Nigeria Air to its full size of 30 aircraft and international operation within the next two years.”
Sirika clarified that no further funding would be provided above the 5 per cent share capital on the national carrier by the Nigerian government.
