Aviation Minister Reveals When Nigeria’s New National Airline Will Start Flying

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika has revealed that Nigeria’s new national carrier will start operations from the first quarter of 2022.

Sirika made the disclosure on Wednesday while addressing state house correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

He revealed that the airline will be run in partnership with the private sector and Nigerians are set to enjoy cheaper air rates.

Explaining the delay in the take-off of the airline’s operation, the Minister revealed that the planned take-off was affected by the global covid-19 pandemic.

Sirika however disclosed that his Ministry will return to the FEC in two weeks to submit a memo with an outline business case for the council’s approval.

“In this 2021, we will try to do all the needful and probably we intend to start operations somewhere around first quarter 2022,” he said.

He added that “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.”

In other news, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has been condemned following a leaked memo conveying the approval of N30m for the construction of a ‘Friday’ mosque with taxpayers’ funds.

The memo, dated December 10, 2020, with reference number FMA/PROC/AHS/SIP/2020/7742/1, disclosed that the Ministerial Tenders Board approved the contract.