Nigeria's Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, has disclosed that the suspended Nigeria Air deal would have obligated Nigeria to pay Ethiopian Airlines about $112 million over three years.
Ethiopian Airlines CEO Mesfin Tasew Bekele has attributed the failure of the Nigeria Air project to politicization and resistance from local Nigerian airlines.
Ethiopian Airlines has announced that the Nigerian government is no longer interested in establishing the proposed Nigeria Air joint venture.
The Nigerian aviation industry recorded 11,321 flight delays in 21,295 flights among 36 domestic and international airlines in Q1 2023.
Aviation stakeholders are calling for investigations into the projects initiated by former Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, particularly the Nigeria Air project.
FG said it is taking necessary measures to overcome the hurdles (lingering court case) introduced by the indigenous airlines that went to court to stop the process.
United Nigeria Airlines' Chairman, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, said FG's Nigeria Air plans will collapse indigenous airlines
This was to forestall the continuous growth of its trapped funds in the country
FG's plan to establish Nigeria Air whilst using Ethiopian Airways as a technical partner was met with fierce backlash
In an email sent to its Nigerian travel partners, Ethiopian Airlines said the country has stopped visa-on-arrival for all Nigerian citizens
Nigeria, with over 200 million population is not lacking in capacity to exclusively birth a national airline, but wants to avoid the issues that led to the collapse of the previous national carrier
These 5 airlines lifted 886,297 international passengers (inbound and outbound) out of the total 2,199, 278 passengers recorded in the Nigerian market in 2021.
