New national carrier’ll cost Nigeria $3bn- Airline Operators

…Say Nigeria Air needs $500m injection as single B777 aircraft costs $320m
…Want FG to focus on infrastructure development, not wasteful project
As criticisms continue to trail the suspension of the proposed national carrier-Nigeria Air, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), on Thursday, said it would have cost the country $3 billion to set up the airline.

Commending the Federal Government for taking bold step to suspend the planned National Carrier Project in the interest of the nation, the Chairman of AON, Capt. Nogie Meggisson, said the national carrier needed $500 million to maintain the airline annually as a Boeing 777 aircraft costs $320m to acquire.

Meggisson said that the operators had continued to call for a rethink by the Federal Government regarding the project.

He said, “They are already investing heavily in the sector and we are only asking for a more friendly operational environment and infrastructure support.

“Is it wise and our priority as a nation to take $3billion from the Nigerian coffers today and put into a venture that will for sure go down the drain within a maximum of five years to establish a `National Carrier’?

“This is bearing also in mind that the National Carrier will need an additional cash injection of $500 million subsidy per year on average for the next 10 years to keep the airline afloat.”

Meggisson noted that majority of Nigerian masses today were grappling for the basic necessities of life like food, shelter, electricity, water, education and good roads.

The Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, had on Wednesday, announced that the Federal Government had decided to suspend the Nigeria Air Project in the interim.

But Meggisson said that the suspension of the carrier was in the light of the tough economic situation in the country today and the fact that it was a moribund idea.

He said: “We thank President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for listening to our many calls for the suspension of the idea.

“In our opinion, we believe the process was neither transparent, nor did it clearly define the role of private investors in the entire process.

“At this time of our national limited resources and struggle to recover from recession, AON will like to state that there are private Nigerian airline investors ready to invest.”

He said Nigeria had overtaken India as the country with the largest number of people living in extreme poverty according to recent reports in the media.

The AON chairman said that the national carrier was only an idea driven by pride, because most airlines earlier owned by governments such as Lufthansa and British Airways had been privatised.

He said: “Just about 10 days ago, on September 12, was a clear indication of what obtains in the true world.

“Boeing financed a private Nigerian airline, Air Peace, for purchase of 10 Boeing 737-8MAX airplanes in a deal valued at $1.5 billion.

“This is much more than the Nigeria National Carrier and a clear indication of the future and where the world is today.”

Meggisson maintained that Nigeria needed strong private airlines allowed to operate in a friendly operational environment with a level playing field and policies that ensure their survival.

He said, “Nigeria is a natural Hub for Africa. However, airlines don’t make a hub; but it is world-class infrastructure that makes a hub. Then, the airlines and airplanes will come in.

“Government should go back to the drawing board and engage the private sector with transparency on how to position Nigeria as the hub for Africa to take advantage of our God-given gift of geographical location,”

Meggisson said that this would make aviation a major economic contributor to the Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (Product) and a serious replacement of the country’s dependence on oil alone.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded for the arrest and immediate prosecution of the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, for allegedly using a non-existent national carrier to defraud the nation to the tune of N1.2 billion.

The party said President Buhari should speak out on this act of corruption under his watch, particularly following allegations that funds released for the phantom project were allegedly diverted to finance his 2019 re-election bid.

The party’s spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan in a statement on Thursday said the purported indefinite suspension of the Nigeria Air project is part of the fraudulent script by the Buhari Presidency, which knows that it cannot go far with the lie, since the project does not exist in the first place.

He said, “It would be recalled that the PDP had in July alerted the nation that the unveiling of a non-existent national carrier was a huge scam designed to create an impression of achievement, as well as a conduit by corrupt All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders and the Buhari Presidency to siphon public funds for selfish purposes.

“Nigerians now know the reason for the rush to London to ‘unveil’ mere drawings of airplanes, name, logo and imaginary routes of a non-existent fleet as our national carrier, without any structures, operational licence, clear partnership agreements and no form of ground activity any where in our country.

“What the APC and the Buhari Presidency failed to understand is that lies, no matter how ornamented, always have their expiry dates. The truth may be suppressed for a while, but it always has a way of coming to light.

“It is now clear to the world that the Buhari administration is corrupt and lacks the capacity to productively engage against acts of corruption. This is the major reason our economy went into a recession and foreign investors have lost confidence in our nation”.

The PDP demanded that the N1.2 billion be immediately recovered and directed to critical interventions in the aviation sector, including the unpaid pension owed to retired aviation workers.