Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for your replies and may i start by saying i am not Nigeria nor from another African state.
I do, however, have a lot of contacts in Africa, Nigeria and the aviaition community. i have nothing to gain by posting the information i possess. I admire all of your confidence in the future and i really do hope things work in your favour.
The fact is that Virgin has not set up AOC to benefit any particular country or group of people except Virgin. inded, that is the motive of all businesses, however, the tone set by Virgin has been one of arrogance that they possess simply because the govt has given them advantagous that do not allow other nigerian companies to compete. Yes the aviaition minister asked all carriers to come together to create a new airline. But as you quite rightly pointed out, to many chiefs with different ideas.
So i believe they all felt that they could do something on there own, something that proved to be incorrect thinking. Again, we can not speculate on what happens behind closed govt. doors and i think to make local airlines the bad guys in this may not be the right thing to do.
All points above are valid to a degree, but we could sit here and hash over numerous points for each others arguements.
Globalflyer
You made a statement that read
"I don't see how high standards, 150 locally employed so far and a vast growth prospect can be a bad thing for Nigeria"
Well that would mean that airlines in Nigeria are of a low standard, which would then suggest that their employees are obviously not to the same standard as Virgin. i would be very careful how you put your arguement. It always depends on how you spin someones thoughtsThere was, nor is, any reason why Nigerians should not be sitting in the right hand seat of an A320 or A340.
Emirates Airlines puts cadet pilots with 300 hours in a B777 every month so why wet lease.
No company can use an excuse that it is not possible to start ops that quickly without such a tool. I disagree, having served in management at an international airline, i can tell you it is possible. Statements can be made RANI but as the old saying goes until the aircraft is parked on the apron then i will believe. I refer to the Sept 2005, which would mean selection process would be completed and course dates set. I do not think that any of the above has been accomplished.
I do not want to take away from all you positive drive, but i would move forward with caution. The Virgin franchise has not made friends with their employees around the world just be aware of that.
As mentioned i have nothing to gain, i just hate to see peoples hopes and desires being inflated and then destroyed. i have seen it to many times in my long career.
As i said in my last post in the other VN forum, i understand there is a group which is intending on creating an entity that will compete with VN. I do not have the details, but i am told that there will be some sort of annoucment in the next few weeks. my understanding is that it will be a wholly owned Nigerian Company that is all i have.
once again, please do not let me take away from what you feel you will have in the future and i truly hope that all that you wish comes true. Just knowing what i do, it makes it very difficult to see it becoming a reality.
Good Luck Everyone.
AC100