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The national airline that the federal government is trying to launch has no Nigerian side, according to Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, spokesman for Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON).
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Okonkwo said that the President was misinformed about the viability of the national carrier while speaking at a webinar on October 20. He also said that the national carrier cannot exist with the proposed shareholder structure, according to Daily Trust.
Ethiopian Airlines had been chosen by the federal government to be an equity partner in the envisaged Nigeria Air. Ethiopian Airlines would own 49 percent of the company, the federal government 5 percent, and Nigerian investors would own the remaining 46 percent.
Okonkwo, the Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, questioned the sincerity and transparency of the entire process of establishing the national carrier and said that discussing a national carrier in the modern global economy is shameful because the aviation industry needs to support local operators and put an end to the ongoing demonization of domestic airlines by those in government.
In his remarks during the webinar, Capt. Roland Iyayi, CEO of TopBrass Airline, voiced concern that Nigeria Air would go out of business like the now-defunct Virgin Nigeria, which was founded in collaboration with Virgin Atlantic of the United Kingdom.
Iyayi noted that the collaboration with Ethiopian Airlines is destroying the domestic market in addition to doing little to expand it.
