Nigeria to Launch a National Carrier that it Hopes will Adequately Serve West Africa

Emirates’ & Qatar Airways Willing to Help

Emirates Airlines, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar Airways, its Qatari counterpart, have rallied behind Nigeria’s new national carrier initiative.

While Qatar Airways is one of the legacy carriers asking for a technical collaboration, Emirates has only agreed to help Nigeria if invited by the government.

When asked if Emirates would get involved in Nigeria Air, during a panel discussion at the World Government Summit 2022 in Dubai on March 28, CEO of Emirates Airlines, Tim Clark said, “If the Nigerian government and the Minister need some assistance in how they go about – perhaps a blueprint – we are very happy to help them, but I would say that they have the wherewithal. They are clearly understanding what needs to be done and they are doing it; and probably within the next year, they will have a very good carrier flying.”

Clark stated he believed there was a viable business case for Nigeria Air as Nigeria was “the powerhouse of Africa.”

Nigeria Air has invited interested private businesses to make ideas for the takeover and development of the new carrier last month, in addition to requesting an Air Operator’s Certificate and an air transport licence from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, as well as forming an interim staff to supervise the incubation phase.

Ownership Structure

The minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika emphasized that the government will only have a 5% investment in the private sector enterprise, with no government control or board involvement.

John Ojikutu, Secretary-General of the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative, encouraged the federal and state governments not to take more than a 10% interest in the airline to make it a flag-carrier rather than a national airline.

He however cautions against working with airlines that currently compete with Nigeria on its Bilateral Air Service Agreement routes.

“Using Qatar, Turkish or any Middle East country, E.U. and U.S. airlines that are on our BASA routes, in any partnership, cannot profit the airline. Get technical partners from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and so on,” Ojikutu said at a press conference.

Not forgetting we are looking and hoping for the birth of a new Pan-African airline group which is seeking a West-African airline partner to initiate the takeoff. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.