Africa’s biggest carrier, Ethiopian Airlines has expressed optimism that the airline will forge ahead in assisting Nigeria in setting up the national carrier – Nigeria Air, despite the setback suffered by the project.
Group Chief Commercial Officer, Lemma Yadecha Gudeta said the airline is confident that the federal government will give Ethiopian Airlines a chance once again to serve the Nigerian public by partnering with the local investors in Nigeria to achieve the objective.
Yadecha Gudeta who spoke in Addis Ababa in an interview recently said, Ethiopian Airlines had done a tremendous job to establish a national carrier for Nigeria, adding that the airline was invited by the government of Nigeria to establish a carrier for the country.
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According to him, the airline passed through the proper bid evaluation process and was chosen as the preferred bidder.
He stated that Ethiopian airlines spent a lot of money on the Nigeria Air project, pointing out it even went to the level of acquiring three Boeing 737 Max aircraft.
He said: “Ethiopian Airlines did a tremendous job to establish a national carrier for Nigeria. We were invited by the national government of Nigeria, we passed through the proper bid evaluation and we were chosen as a preferred bidder at a time. We spent a lot of money on the Nigeria Air project. And we even went to the level of acquiring three Boeing 737 Max aircraft. We have already paid and entered into a contract, there is no option than for us to take those airplanes. We are going to use the airplanes here in Ethiopia and we have partners in Africa; a very successful one in Togo in Asky Airlines and we have others in Zambia and Malawi.
“One of the aircraft has already arrived and the second one will arrive today or tomorrow (last Thursday or Friday) and the third one will follow later.
“Ethiopian Airlines is a very reputable carrier and we are a company that knows what it does. We were invited by the Nigerian Government and we replied to the call of the government. We were awarded the bid and we strongly believed that whatever we did was according to the law of Nigeria. Initially, we were advised that the entire process would be further investigated and we were waiting to get a reply from the Nigerian Government on their findings to the process. Since we didn’t see any wrong doing in it, we are confident that the Nigerian Government would let us continue the project as soon as possible.
“We are very confident that the Nigerian government will once again give Ethiopian Airlines a chance to serve the Nigerian public by partnering with the local investors in Nigeria. We are very confident.
“For me, I reviewed the opinion of the minister of aviation and aerospace development in Nigeria, Mr. Festus Keyamo and we truly respect his opinion because he is an official of the Nigerian Government and we respect the decision in whatever way and we are confident that the Nigerian Government would give Ethiopian Airlines a chance to serve Nigeria by establishing a strong, reliable and an airline Nigeria as a nation deserves.”
