Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, announced on Wednesday that the country will begin the operation of a new national air carrier in the first quarter of 2022.
The Minister made the announcement while speaking to journalists after the Federal Executive Council meeting held at the Presidential Villa.
He said the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic delayed the conclusion of plans as well as the takeoff of the project which he said was supposed to happen this year.
Sirika added that the ministry of aviation will submit a proposal to the Federal Executive Council in two weeks.
He said, “In this 2021, we will try to do all the needful and probably we intend to start operations somewhere around first quarter 2022,”
“It is still in top gear, we are coming back to Council, hopefully within the next two weeks, to present the memo on the national carrier,”
“We went to Council to approve the outline business case for the carrier and then the Council raised some questions and asked us to go and file the memo again and bring it back.
“So, once it comes back and the outline business case is approved by Council, then, of course, we will now go to the full business case, which is now going to the market and then establishing the national carrier.
“Of course, for obvious reasons, we now have access to equipment, that they will come faster to us, deliveries of the aircraft will be faster, perhaps even the rates might be cheaper and so on, and so forth.”
