LAGOS — NIGERIA’S new flag carrier, the Nigerian Eagle Airlines (NEA) is to take-off on October 1, 2004, with the Virgin Atlantic Airways (VAA) serving as strategic investor and technical partner, and the Aviation Minister, Mallam Isa Yuguda, is billed to make this public in Abuja tomorrow.
The Virgin Atlantic Airways deal, coming on the heels of the collapse of the South African Airways’ bid as technical partner and strategic investor for the new carrier, is coming at a time the aviation ministry is scheming to use the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to evict Nigerian Global Aviation Company Limited out of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA).
To make the take-off date possible, Vanguard learnt that VAA had already filed an application for the new carrier’s Air Operating Certificate (AOC) and Air Traffic License (ATL) from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and Aviation Ministry respectively.
“The mandatory time for acquisition of both licenses is usually 90 days, and the plan is that the AOC and ATL would have been secured by the October date,” said sources.
Sources told Vanguard that the VAA had also filed for a call sign from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which is expected to be secured before the October date. The VAA is billed to use the slot of liquidated Nigeria Airways, whose workers had filed a case against government at an Abuja High Court, praying it to rule for voluntary liquidation of the airline rather than forced liquidation.
On the case filed against liquidation of Nigeria Airways by Air Atlanta, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja presided over by Justice Steve Jonah Adah last Friday entered judgement in favour of liquidation of the airline by the Federal Government.
Aviation Minister, Mallam Isa Yuguda, was quoted as saying that the designation of a local flag carrier as the NEA on such lucrative routes as New York, Lodon, Dubai and Jeddah would reduce by half the over $2 billion of capital flight out of the economy through the aviation sector.
But sources in the aviation industry contended that in as much as the VAA option was desirable the Federal Government was merely chasing shadows, as the fate of the SAA might also befall the VAA, especially in respect of the litigations facing government with regards to the forced liquidation of the airline.
Vanguard also learnt that the minister had by the VAA option sidelined Nigerian Global which applied for designation as a flag carrier. Sources said the minister did not only foreclose chances of Nigerian Global for designation, but is equally planning to send the company packing from the MMIA as a tenant.
The minister, Mallam Yuguda, had two weeks ago in Nairobi, Kenya, alleged that Nigerian Global was fake, hence his refusal to deal with it. The Nigerian carrier project, with Nigerian Global as focus, was started by former aviation minister and Yuguda’s predecessor, Mrs. Kema Chikwe.
