FEC okays Nigeria Air lease of aircrafts to commence operations

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The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has given approval to the new national carrier, Nigeria Air, to lease aircrafts so that it can commence operations.

The Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, disclosed this at the end of the council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.

While declining to disclose when exactly the operations might begin, Sirika said the airline will start with three aircrafts.

He reiterated that the airline will be owned by Nigerians with 51 per cent shares while the rest will go to foreign partners.

Speaking at the meeting, the Aviation minister said: “I presented two memoranda on the national carrier to allow Nigeria to lease aircraft to start operations. That has been approved by the council.

“And the second is the deployment of investigation tool by Accident Investigation Bureau. That tool will permit the accident investigation to be able to decode going on in flights, and God forbid, should there be a need to investigate the accident or incident, the tool will help them to be able to do so.

“That procurement is in the sum of 1,506,285.7 euros which is equivalent to N707,962,864.83. This will be including taxes at central bank exchange rate of 472 in Euro with the delivery period of 11 months and is awarded to Messers integrated contract services limited for AIB.”

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Answering questions on the number of aircrafts the new national carrier will lease for the take-off, he said: “On how many aircrafts, I have said in our business plan, in the outline business case which is approved which are presented right here in this hall, I said that we are starting with three aircrafts, for the first instance, to do the runs and then we progress.

“As to the make and type, we will be having eventually a mix of the two, the Air Buses and the Boeings. Because every airline that wants to grow big is either or, most of them are either Air Bus or they are Boeing, especially for the Intercontinental and international flights. And this will start as domestic airline. And then it will of course grow to become regional and international also intercontinental.

“On timeline, is a process we’re progressing. We will announce the commencement date soon.”

Sirika affirmed the challenges of the aviation industry in Nigeria, noting that it is a global phenomena, which he is confident would be overcome.

He added: “On the question of how we’re going to pull this through with the hiccups the aviation is facing, well certainly it is a global phenomena. Of course, I’m very sure you are abreast with the going on around the aviation industry. But suddenly it’s not here forever. Aviation is a very resilient activity.

“From time before, it always take a deep and then come back up. We saw it in 9/11, we saw it in the south, we saw it in the global meltdown, we saw it in Pearl Harbor, and so on so forth. So aviation is very resilient. And I think we’ll get out of the problems we are facing.

“Of particular reference, yesterday all of you were present when we discussed with The Airline operators of Nigeria (AON) as to the challenges we’re facing in terms of Jet A1 availability and of course pricing, which is 40 per cent of the operations of the airline. We’re finding solutions to those problems and the cost of funds also is being attended to and so on and so forth. So yes, we will get there. And it’s doable and by God’s grace.”

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FEC okays Nigeria Air lease of aircrafts to commence operations

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