The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the lease of 3 aircraft to enable the country’s national carrier, Nigeria Air to begin operations. This was disclosed to State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika on Wednesday after the Council’s meeting which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said, “We have said in our outline business case, which was earlier approved, that we are starting with 3 aircraft for the first instance and then we progress. We will have a mixture of Airbus and Boeings because every airline that will grow big uses the 2.
“We will start with domestic flights and then we grow to become international and then we move to become regional and intercontinental. There are challenges currently in our aviation industry but it is a global phenomenon and it will not last forever because aviation is a very resilient sector. Certainly, we will overcome these problems”.
He further said that the Federal Government welcomes investment from any of the country’s airline companies.
Nigeria Air has received the Air Transport Licence (ATL) to begin operations, but no date for its launch has been announced yet.
