By UCHE NWORAH (with additional reports by Felix Durumba & Oriaku Ijele)
Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, has said that the arrival of a Boeing 737 aircraft, branded in ‘Nigeria Air’ logo and colours on Friday, 26th May, 2026, marked a turning point in the history of aviation in Nigeria.
The Minister was speaking at the official unveiling of Nigeria Air to the public and the media. According to him, “Today is a great day. The yearnings of Nigerians for a national flag carrier has been fully achieved by the government of President Muhamadu Buhari. This is in line with the aviation industry masterplan, to make Nigeria a vibrant aviation hub”.
Continuing, the Minister said; “Nigeria Air is set up towards getting Nigeria to take advantage of its various Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) and open skies agreements through having a national carrier.
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“The value this brings to our national economy is that it will make Nigeria a hub for major travel destinations such as London and New York. It will also make travel cheaper as tickets of the national carrier will be quoted in naira and not dollars, as is currently done by international airline operators”.
“The establishment of the national air carrier will enhance the aviation industry’s capacity and improve the nation’s economy. There will be employment opportunities for Nigerians, expansion of our tourism potentials, and increased in-bound investments”.
“It is projected that a total of 400 jobs will be created with the commencement of operations by Nigeria Air. That number will rise to over 70,000 in both direct and indirect jobs when the carrier becomes fully operational”, the minister noted.
“An initial fleet of 12 airplanes will be deployed for operations – six to be deployed to local routes and another six deployed to international route”, the Minister concluded.
Nigeria Air was resuscitated by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration as the national flag carrier of Nigeria which will operate scheduled international, regional and domestic passenger services.
The airline, which effectively replaced the defunct Nigeria Airways, is a joint venture between Nigerian investors and Ethiopian Airlines with Nigerian Investors owning 51% shares in the joint venture. Initial attempts to resuscitate defunct Nigeria Airways through a joint venture with Virgin Group in 2004 failed because of disagreement over business terms and operating environment issues as Virgin withdrew from the business between 2008 and 2010. This new arrangement coming on the heels of President Buhari’s Aviation Masterplan, has taken learning from previous failures, and is set to avail Nigeria of an opportunity to fully tap into opportunities for creating an aviation hub in Nigeria and delivering world class services to Nigeria at affordable rate.
The announcement of the carrier is sending optimism around some sectors in the Nigerian economy, especially tourism. Daily Times can confirm that many Nigerians, while hoping that the new development will engender competition and drive down fares in the sector, would also enhance the tourism business at both local and international rungs.
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