Few months after the Nigerian government unveiled the proposed national carrier project at Farnborough Air Show in London, the Federal Government at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting has suspended the project.
Nigeria’s minister of state for aviation Hadi Sirika, who disclosed this to news at the nation’s capital Abuja said the decision to the decision to suspend the project was strategic and had nothing to do with politics or pressure from stakeholders.
According to projections from ministry, the carrier was supposed to start it operations before the end of the year.
The project had generated major controversies over the months with a lot of unresolved issues from the payment of the former workers of the liquidated Nigeria Airways to the fact that the airline had not started processing its certification from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, had revealed and assured that the airline would take off in December, 2018 after the airline’s unveiling in July 18, 2018 even without the commencement of any certification for the project to be legal entity.
Meanwhile, a fortnight ago, Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Muktar Usman said the Nigeria Air Project was on track stating that as far as the regulatory agency is concerned the two major certificates, the Air Transport Licence (ATL) and the Aircraft Operators Certificate (AOC), to be issued by it can be done within 90 days all things being equal.
