Nigeria Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika confirmed commencement of flights by National Airlines flights service come December 19th 2018.
Currently arrangements are underway to have all paper work complete for start of operations and so far five airplanes are to commence service. Mr Sirika, a 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).
Proposed airline will gulp $8.8 million preliminary cost and $300 million as take-off cost though Nigerian Government is not fully funding the airlines but rather through a Public Private Partnership that has been established. It is estimated that the airline will start making profits after three years from start of operations.
Mr. Sirika said they intend to get a 30 aircraft market in five years and on July 18th at Farnborough International Public Air show in London, they will unveil the name of the airlines, logo, color scheme, structure and the type of airplane about the national carrier plus an order for the aircraft will be placed at the same event.
According to him, it will also take advantage of the Africa Single Air Transport Market and will be the best player if the government gets it right.
The Director General of ICRC, Mr Izuwah, said the presentation of the Certificate of Compliance was an official green light to proceed with the procurement process.
He explained that the government would bring its contribution to kickstart the airline, adding that the amount of equity the partners would hold would determine government contribution.
