New national carrier to take off first quarter 2022, says Sirika

Hadi Sirika, the minister of aviation, says the new national carrier will commence operation in the first quarter of 2022.

Sirika disclosed this while addressing state house correspondents after the weekly federal executive council meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.

In 2018, the minister had unveiled the name and logo of the new national carrier, Nigeria Air, at the Farnborough International Airshow in London. The project was later suspended indefinitely

“I regret to announce that the Federal Executive Council has taken the tough decision to suspend the National Carrier Project in the interim. All commitments due will be honoured. We thank the public for the support as always,” he had tweeted.

Sirika said the new national carrier is long overdue and the private sector-run airline will be in operation by early 2022, with possibly cheaper rates.

He noted that the new national carrier is expected to be a viable airline and is potentially poised to cater to millions of travelers in Nigeria and Africa.

Sirika said the COVID-19 pandemic the forced postponement of the planned date for the establishment of the national carrier initially planned for the end of 2021.

He further added that the Ministry will return to the council in two weeks to submit a memo with an outline business case for council’s approval.

Sirika also announced the approval of contract for the procurement of a towable mobile office for the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) of the civil aviation authority.

“The contract is for the procurement, equipment and installation of accident investigation towable mobile offices in favour of Messrs. Crases Integrity Services Limited. The total contract sum is N201,150,437.21,” he said.

“The purpose of this equipment, once purchased, if there is, God forbid, an accident anywhere, these mobile offices will be driven to the location and an office will be established for the purposes of taking data, collecting samples and gathering information regarding the incident and then analysing them on site and tagging them and doing all sorts of things there and you know, this can take any time, sometimes a few hours, sometimes even weeks.”