Divergent views trail Nigeria Air/Ethiopian Airlines’ deal

DESPITE the no going back body language of the federal government in ensuring it delivers a new national airline, the Nigeria Air to Nigerians before the expiration of its administration, the feelers coming from the different key players across the sector has tilted towards resentment.

Many key players who have expressed misgivings about the project, have beaded their position on what they called the wrong choice of Ethiopian Airline as the preferred bidder in the Nigeria Air project.

The unsettled dust the project continues to raise in the sector became more pronounced at a webinar organized by Avaero Capitals Partners with the theme: ‘Nigeria Air-The Solution to Nigerias Aviation Problems?, as many speakers at the event opposed the style adopted by the government in packaging the project.

Though the take off date for the airline is still uncertain even when President Muhammadu Buhari recently announced December as the new date for Nigeria Air to hit the sky, stakeholders who spoke differently at the webinar have queried the choice of Ethiopian Airlines having a large chunk of 49 percent shares in the airline on the ground that the percentage will allow the African carrier a huge involvement in the country’s economy.

The Chairman of Westlink Airline, Captain Ibrahim Mshelia who supported the idea of Nigeria having another national carrier, however condemned the method of approach by the government which he said will continue to work against the country.

His words: “We are refusing to accept that what we are doing in Nigeria is wrong and others will continue to take advantage of us and our market.

Ethiopian airlines should be cancelled, they cannot be and shouldn’t be a strategic investor, it is an embarrassment for us as a nation with such potential and if we have the ability to be able to fund our airline properly the way Ethiopian is doing  and we will be able to do things right and then we allow an African country that are doing the things right and rather than us do the things right and fix it, we are now allowing them to come and show us, what will they show us? We should not accept that Ethiopian should do it.

If they want to do it, let an individual Ethiopian businessman or somebody put in money no problem but not Ethiopian airlines, Mshelia added.

A one time managing director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mr Roland Iyayi apart from knocking the questionable choice of Ethiopian Airlines as the technical partner in the Nigeria Air project also faulted the lack of transparency adopted by the government for packaging the coming airline.

Though he agreed that Nigeria needed a national carrier two decades after the collapse of the Nigeria Airways, but punctured the style being used by the government which he said will only give the African carrier undue advantage over Nigeria.

While describing the choice of Ethiopian Airlines as a national embarrassment, Mshelia

This is an airline being set up using government as a face but owed by private individuals that is my contention and I think on that basis, it should be stopped and a more transparent process should be put in place because there is a need to reciprocate all our Bi-lateral Services Agreements (BASAs) and Multilateral Agreements in different countries but it should be done in a way that gives the benefits of commonwealth to all and not to a few.

In the defense of his opposition towards the choice of ET in the project, Iyayi accused Ethiopian airlines of sabotaging the efforts of a Nigerian carrier, Arik Air and Air Peace from commencing operations into Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia will never allow a Nigerian whoever that Nigerian airline is coming out of Nigeria Air to compete, they are not stupid, they know what they are coming to do and they know exactly what they want. And for the records, Ethiopian approached Air Peace to have a footprint in the domestic market in Nigeria, such that they were willing to pay Air Peace royalties, Ethiopian tried the same thing in 2018 with Ghanaian Authority and they were thrown out. So the point is, if Ethiopia with all the antecedents in 2017 they block Arik Air from flying into Ethiopia, they did the same thing again to Air Peace in recent times so, if they are doing all of this to protect their own market and for us to now say come into our market with unfetter access, I believe this is the worst thing that can happen to the Nigeria industry.