•It’s grand deceit –AON
From Uche Usim, Abuja and Chinelo Obogo
Criticisms have continued to trail the premature unveiling of Nigeria Air’s B737-800 jetliner last Friday by the Aviation Minister, Mr Hadi Sirika, whose tenure as cabinet minister ends today.
Sirika, while flaunting the aircraft in Abuja, said the airplane would soon commence test flights once it secures the nod of the industry regulator, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
But checks by Daily Sun revealed that the B737-800 flew into Abuja as Nigeria Air for the unripe fanfare, but returned the following day with passengers to Addis Ababa as a scheduled Ethiopian Airlines service, with the call sign ET 938.
Information about the return of the jetliner was found on flight live tracker ‘flightrader24.com’, which showed, on Saturday afternoon, that the airplane was headed to Addis Ababa, the operational base of Ethiopian Airlines, being the core investor (49 per cent stake) in the controversial Nigeria Air project.
Confirming the return of the flight to Addis Ababa, an airport official at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja said:
“Yes, the aircraft has returned to Addis Ababa. It went with passengers. It returned as a scheduled service of Ethiopian Airlines. It did not return as Nigeria Air, which was the call sign it came with. It returned as ET 938”, he told Daily Sun.
Investigations revealed that the Boeing 737-800 has registration Number ET-APL, Mode S Q4005C and serial number: 40965/4075.
Last Friday, Sirika told an anxious audience that the jetliner was on ground to commence test flights soonest to gauge its preparedness for scheduled service. He revealed that the plan for the national carrier was to have a fleet of 35 aircraft by 2035.
He added that the choice of Ethiopian Airlines has become the best judging from its globally-recognised capacity and technical expertise that has existed for 77 years.
On assurances that Nigeria Air will outlive the Buhari administration, Sirika said that Nigerian government’s share in the project is only five percent, adding: “if the Nigerian government decides not to continue, other parties will trudge on”.
With regard to the existing litigation, he said the government was more concerned about delivering excellent services via Nigeria Air and has not stopped local operators from bringing in foreign partners to fortify their operations in Nigeria.
Despite the former assurances of Sirika, caustic criticisms have continued to trail the hurried unveiling of the national carrier, especially with a subsisting court order by local operators blocking its launch.
The Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines Limited, Prof. Obiorah Okonkwo, in a television interview, reiterated that local carriers on the platform of Airlines Operators of Nigeria (AON) was already in court to stop the establishment of the airline because of the shadiness and lack of transparency and emphasized that the ‘charade’ that happened on Friday was to deceive the Nigerian public because the new airline has not met the five critical conditions that will enable it to secure Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from NCAA.