Government to start receiving bids from investors for new national airlines on March 8

NIGERIA'S proposed new airline is to begin requesting proposals from investors on March 8 as plans to get the venture up and running by the end of April commence according to aviation minister Hadi Sirika.

In July 2018 at the Farnborough Air Show in Kent in the UK, Mr Sirika, revealed plans to float a new national carrier called Nigeria Air. Pointing out that the airline was due take off in December 2018, Mr Sirika said that following extensive negotiations with several international airlines and aircraft manufacturers, it would fly to 80 different destination and have a fleet of 30 aircraft.

However, in September 2018, the federal government announced that the plans were being put on hold because of objections from the economic management team (EMT) chaired by vice president Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Apparently the EMT recommended that the Nigerian government should not set up a national carrier with public funds, unless a budget had been approved for the project, which was accepted by the cabinet and approved by the National Assembly.

 Since then, the federal government has been struggling to get the project going, seeking to woo private investors and international airlines to take out a stake in the venture. Earlier this week, however, Michael Ohiani, the acting director-general of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) said all the building blocks required to launch the project are now in place.

Mr Sirika added that requests for proposals to intending investors on the national carrier will start being issued on March 8.  Furthermore, Mr Sirika explained that the way the airline is structured, the government will own 5% of it, the Nigerians public will own 46% and international partner airlines will take out a 49% stake in the venture.

“We will give them some weeks to respond to the request, then we will announce the winning bidder. However, in the interim, because the government intends to own only 5% of the airline shares, we are going to go ahead with the air operator certificate (AOC).

“I believe by April, we should be able to have our AOC ready, which means, we are ready to start. Once the AOC is in our hands, the offices are secured, the interim board is being constituted and they finish signing the contract, we will announce who they are," Mr Sirika added.

He added that they are called interim because they will run the venture on a temporary basis until the time the investors come and take over. Mr Sirika said the interim board members are noble people, some Nigerians and this new airline will bring competition into the aviation sector and force air fare prices down.

Mr Sirika added: "I think they are about nine of them to run the airline and they will begin operations between now and July. I am very glad it is happening, we took our time to do due diligence in order to get value for our money."

He said that Nigeria Air will run Lagos and Abuja and as the situation demands, it may extend to Port Harcourt and other parts of the country. It is not yet clear which international routes the airline will ply.