Is ANYONE surprised? The ONLY surprise is that it's taken this many years for the 'lessors' to learn how Nigeria commercial aviation is conducted and what a mess it is. There are three dominant elements is the completely unprofessional conduct of Nigeria aviation. 1. No Nigerian airline has EVER produced a business plan. This means a REAL plan...not mental notes, wish lists nor comments from people who, also, have no expertise. A real plan with financial projections, objective cost projections, contingency plans, objective assessment of city-pairs, load factors, ticket prices, security and depreciation...and the myriad additional components of a PLAN. 2. The mindless selection of unqualified people to manage and operate the airline company. Airline operations are incredibly complex, constantly 'fluid', REQUIRING intense oversight in REAL TIME (not relying on what people are 'telling you' - inspect and evaluate yourself), money management, asset management (and constant vigilance of it's status and location) NOTE: I have met several talented aviation people, and I concede there are 'some' capable people in Nigeria - unfortunately NONE of them are in senior management or in critical decision making positions. There are no airline CEO's in Nigeria who have the entrepreneurship, vision, enthusiasm, courage, ethics, managerial acumen, knowledge of HOW AN AIRLINE CAN AND SHOULD OPERATE. Some possess a few requisite skills - but no person has all the skills needed to be the 'boss'. There are no people in the Nigeria government with adequate skills to judge the performance of an airline. 3. Nigerian aspirations - inevitably are the dominant influence in the selection of airplanes. Airplanes CAN ONLY be selected and operated on routes, and in environments, that will generate enough revenue to PAY FOR THEM - not because they are large, prestigious, modern or 'available with EASY payments'. Airplanes must be matched to projected load factors, margins of profit, cost of maintenance (always predicated on the utilization of the aircraft), fuel consumption (remember the 'business plan?)...and dozens of other factors which have DIRECT impact on PROFIT. Starting small, building the business, conserving and accumulating CASH, training employees, expanding slowly, PAY AS YOU GO, manage the business with the same intensity as 'brain surgery' and KEEP THE AIRPLANES CLEAN, WELL MAINTAINED AND ALWAYS FULLY AIRWORTHY - is NOT the visible philosophy of Nigerian airlines. Nigerians want to launch airlines with brand new, expensive, large airplanes and excessive to the need. They want to grow the airline at a pace which cannot be sustained, with money they don't have and HAVE NO IDEA how they pay for them and THEN serve cities and airports that are prestigious and convenient for the government and executive decisions makers - but will not generate the revenue needed to keep the company going. The new, proposed 'national carrier', NIGERIA AIR, is a foolish campaign. The degree of foolishness is GALACTIC. The figure of $132M (USD) that's been publicized - is TEN TIMES MORE than needed to create and launch a modern, profitable and safe airline - BUT - it is one tenth of the amount needed to create and launch a bloated, ill-prepared, poorly staffed and poorly managed airline - in the fashion Nigerian promoters are talking about. If they do this - Nigeria Air will fail.