Nigeria Air
Air Nigeria remains suspended indefinitely – Keyamo
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has said Air Nigeria, the national carrier, has been suspended indefinitely.
The Minister stated this on Monday in Abuja, insisting that the Air Nigeria Airline project is suspended indefinitely.
Keyamo spoke at the ministerial briefing to celebrate the first year of the Tinubu administration.
He said the airline was never a Nigerian airline but instead, an attempt to impersonate a foreign airline operating in Nigeria.
According to him, “It (airline) emains suspended. It was never Air Nigeria. It was not Air Nigeria. That’s the truth. It was only painted Air Nigeria. It was Ethiopian Airlines trying to flag our flag,” he said.
“If it is so, why not allow our local people to fly our flag. Why bring a foreigner to fly our flag? So nobody should dispute that it was Air Nigeria.
“Air Nigeria must be indigenous, must be wholly Nigerian, and must be for the full benefits of Nigeria, not that 50 percent of the profit is for another country.”
Keyamo reiterated that the ownership structure of the suspended airline is not beneficial to the country.
In 2023, the Ministry of Aviation, under Hadi Sirika, former minister, launched Nigeria Air — three days before the end of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The development had elicited concerns among stakeholders nationwide over the ownership arrangement which gave Ethiopian Airlines a 49 percent equity stake.
The Federal Government had a 5 percent equity, while a consortium of three Nigerian investors had 46 percent.
Reacting to the deal in June 2023, the house of representatives asked the federal government to suspend the operations of Nigeria Air, describing it as ‘a fraud’.
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