December take off for Nigeria Air sancrosant
Despite opposition from Domestic Airline Operators, the planned take-off of Nigeria Air in December will come to pass. The Federal Government on Wednesday stated this in Abuja, during an Interactive session with the Senate Committee on Aviation.
However, domestic airline operators in Nigeria have been kicking against the project.
Speaking with newsmen at the interactive session the lawmakers had with the Minister, heads of agencies in the Aviation sector and Domestic Airline operators, the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, said no going back on the project scheduled to take off in December this year.
He said: “Nigeria Air is a company that is registered and known to the laws of Nigeria which will become by God’s grace the much-awaited airline.
“It is going to happen by the grace of God between now and December of this year. It will fly and also compete fairly with all of those existing airlines. The intent is not to kill any business. The intent is to help to promote all businesses to be able to provide the needed service and employ our people.
“This is the intent and the more the merrier. The more that you have people doing business, then the one that does it better takes advantage and gives more service and the people get served better. If every one of them is doing very well without any favouritism, then it means that the competition will be healthy and will bring down the price of tickets and increase the propensity to fly and make more people to fly and then make more money for the airlines and give more service to the country Nigeria. The idea is a very good one. Whether it will be established by the grace of God it will be established and it will be for the people.”
In their submissions before the committee, the Domestic Airline operators said they are not against National Carrier but against Ethiopian Airlines as a major investor with a 49% equity share.
The Domestic Airline Operators who expressed their opposition to the plan by the President of Top Brass Aviation and former Managing Director of Nigeria Airspace Management Agency ( NAMA), Roland Iyayi, said the project as conceived today, is inimical to domestic operators.
