The recent drama that greeted the Nigeria Ethiopia plane landing is another chapter in our never ending movie.This must be another installment of Super story, I hope Wale Adenuga is writing.
Hadi Sirika’s attempt to cobble a deal together for a national carrier against the support and complaints of the airline operators is something worth studying.
Hitherto, there was a court case on ground and there were fears and concerns, but it all fell on deaf ears.Even One of the Airline Operators challenged the AOC certification of the Airline saying it had not reached stage 5, but finally the Eagle did land, albeit with an Ethiopian Number.
Do not get me wrong, there are many national airlines that have partnerships with Ethiopan air, like that of Guinea, Guinea Airlines is a Guinean carrier based at Conakry Airport. The privately held carrier operates international and domestic services using Embraer ERJ145 and ATR72-500 aircraft. The Guinean airline was unveiled on 25-Feb-2017, and was formed by Groupe Business Marketing (GBM) and Regourd Aviation. It is named after the former national carrier, which ceased in 2002. Under a strategic partnership between Ethiopian Airlines, ASKY and Guinea Airlines, the carrier commenced services from Conakry to destinations in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, operated by ASKY, but the contention here is the possibility of taking the oomph off airlines in Nigeria, like Airpeace that is steadily growing.
Arik air is still under AMCON, why can’t the FG invest its 5% in that airlines and make it Nigerian Air?Why can’t the FG partner with Airpeace and invest locally to improve the prospects of our Airlines rather than this deal with Ethiopia Airline that will cannibalism that space in Nigeria and eat into our bilateral Air Service agreement portfolio.
In this inquest, it is also important to revisit the issue of Nigeria Airways and the mismanagement that occurred.It is not surprising that this drama about Nigeria Air is indicative that we keep setting ourselves for ridicule.
what more can I say,I will give Mr Sirika the chance and we will hope that Nigeria Air flies soon, but will it fly?
