The Federal Government of Nigeria on Wednesday announced that the name of
the proposed new National Carrier is ‘Nigeria Air’.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed this while
unveiling the airline to investors at the ongoing Farnborough
International Air Show in UK.
The colour is green white green.
Mr. Sirika had on July 8 said the proposed national airline would be
unveiled before the end of the year.
The former pilot gave the assurance while receiving the Outline Business
Case Certificate of Compliance for the establishment of the airline from
Chidi Izuwah, the Director General, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory
Commission (ICRC).
The minister said that the presentation of the certificate was a testament
on how far the project had gone.
The proposed airline will gulp $8.8 million preliminary cost and $300
million as take-off cost.
The Nigerian government is not fully funding the airline as it has adopted
midwifing it via the option of a Public Private partnership, to deliver a
national carrier that would stand the test of time and be world class in
operation and management, he said.
According to Mr Sirika, Nigeria will receive the first set of five
airplanes for the airliner on December 19 and own 30 aircraft in five
years.
The airline will make profit in three years after operations, the minister
said.
Nigeria had a national carrier known as Nigeria Airways for 46 years.The
company was founded in 1958 after the dissolution of West African Airways
Corporation.
The company was liquidated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in
September 2004 after it slipped into heavy indebtedness and inefficiency.