Nigeria Air will not fly before May, 29 handover—Sirika, Aviation minister

The plan by Senator Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation, to launch Nigeria Air as the na­tional carrier of the country is failing despite the many prom­ises by the minister that the airline would commence before the end of this administration.

This is after the government had expended billions of naira in the design and logo of the purported airline.
The launching of the logo was done in far away United Kingdom with fanfare, pump and pageantry to view of the global aviation world.

It was gathered that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is reluctant to issue the airline’s Air Oper­ator Certificate (AOC), which would enable it to operate as a scheduled operator, reports Daily Independent.

It was learnt that the reason for the reluctance by the apex regulatory body in the avia­tion sector to issue AOC is not far-fetched as the airline is yet to complete all the five phases that would allow it to issue the airline AOC, while the regula­tory body does not want to be seen as contravening its own regulations on AOC issuance.

It was gathered that as at last Friday, the only visible thing about the airline is its office at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, which was still under lock and key.

Also, a large section of the domestic terminal at the same Abuja airport kept for the planned national carrier was equally empty without sign of commencement of operations.

A reliable source close to the Ministry of Aviation, confided in this paper over the weekend that Sirika in collabo­ration with Ethiopian Airlines had wanted to deploy three air­craft from the fleet of the airline, painted in Nigeria Air colours, but the painting, which was tak­ing place at the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) fa­cility of Ethiopian Airlines in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was not going to be completed before the end of May, 2023.

The minister was alleged to have contemplated using NG Eagle Airline aircraft, which was about two months ago is­sued an AOC under controver­sial circumstances by NCAA.

The Asset Management Cor­poration of Nigeria (AMCON) was the promoter of NG Eagle Airlines, but it was frustrated out of the process in the last phase.

AMCON, which has initial­ly deployed three aircraft in the fleet of Arik Air under its receivership, opted out of the process and returned the air­planes to Arik Air.

Till date, the three airplanes are still parked at the hangar of Arik Air and in the livery of NG Eagle.

AMCON later transferred its right on the airline to Alhaji Abdullahi Ahmed and Ibra­him Ahmed Mohammed who purportedly used wet-leased aircraft from Heston Planes, a leasing aircraft company based in Vilnus, Lithuania, to complete the AOC process with NCAA.

Besides, update from the Corporate Affairs Commis­sion (CAC) on April 17, 2023 with number RGO/SPU/ VOL.3/2023/070 revealed that the current status of the airline was “inactive.”

So, for the past two months since it obtained an AOC, the airline is yet to operate, which is against the regulation of NCAA that stipulates that AOC is nullified if the airline that obtained it does not use it after 30 days.

Corporate Affairs records show that the ownership of NG Eagle was transferred by Kamilu Omokide and AMCON at nil charges during the pen­dency of the suit by Arik Air shareholders – where NG Eagle is defendant on the February 20, 2023, a date after the court had reserved judgment in the sub­stantive suit to March 31, 2023.

Industry observers monitor­ing the case said the order of the court effectively put in abeyance all matters of launch and oper­ations of NG Eagle, which sur­prisingly was issued an AOC dated September 21, 2021 and expiring September 20, 2023.

But as at the time the NCAA stopped the issuance of the AOC, Capt. Musa Nuhu, the Director-General Civil Aviation (DGCA) was yet to sign the doc­ument and declined to append his signature due to “pressure from above.”

“Thus, with an AOC expir­ing in five months without any attempt at commercial service since 2021, speaks to the weak­ness of compliance in avia­tion,” an industry source said.

Also, the case instituted against the Federal Govern­ment, Ministry of Aviation and the Ethiopian Airlines by the Airline Operators of Nige­ria (AON) against the Nigeria Air project was still subsisting in court and is yet to be vacated by the airline operators.

Besides, a stakeholder in the industry told Daily Independent that NG Eagle as a company is technically owned by Arik Air.

“The owner of Galactic Avi­ation, also bought NG Eagle, a company known to have been set up from the human and fi­nancial resources of Arik Air. Notwithstanding the order of the Federal High Court nullify­ing the NG Eagle transaction, NCAA went ahead to issue an AOC to NG Eagle even despite the breach of its own regula­tions as a regulatory agency,” he said.

Industry analyst, Mr. Lanre Bamgbose, in his reaction to the failed national carrier project said that attempt to create a na­tional carrier in a contraption of NG Eagle and Nigeria Air was true.

Bamgbose insisted that this alluded to the fact that the government was desperate to form a national carrier before the end of this administration on May 29, 2023.

He added: “We are all aware of a subsisting order of court on the Nigeria Air matter, non-compliance with orders of courts is a precursor to building an aviation house of confusion that may be inherited by the incoming administration. Not­withstanding, I cannot imagine any officer of the state will bra­zenly assault the rule of law in this manner, when, in fact, even Mr. President obeyed orders of court as we see in even a core national economic strategic issue as the currency.

“As much as the Aviation Minister insists he will launch the national carrier, he surely cannot do it in defiance of a subsisting order of court – oth­erwise in whose interest really will he be doing it.”

But Dr. James Odaudu, the Special Assistant to Sirika on Media, said the court case, which slowed down the process­es for the new airline, could be settled between AON and the federal government.

According to him, before the court case emanated, the entire process for the new airline was almost completed.

He said: “I don’t want to be quoted on a matter that is in the court of law, but that doesn’t mean there is no enough time for the matter to be settled even in the court.

“You and I know that before the court case emerged, things were already on ground for the takeoff of the airline and the process was almost concluded on the project. It is not as if anything new is going to start on it.”