wabulabantu
31st Jul 2018, 06:05
This article has some depth in talking about upcoming alliances and the new national carrier in Nigeria.
https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/news/world/African-airlines-fly-to-the-Gulf-seeking-alliances/4259366-4688214-pyt6lhz/index.html
stallfail
1st Aug 2018, 19:47
In the words of Sir Richard Branson:
“…we have virgin’s ill-fated footsteps by setting up a new airline in Africa in conjunction with Nigerian government…the details of the doomed attempts to crack the Nigerian market in the 2000s is better imagined…we put …together a very good airline-the first airline in West Africa that was ever IOSA/IATA operational safety audit accredited but unfortunately it got tied down to the politics of the country…we led the airlines for 11 years…
“We fought daily battle against government agents who wanted to daily make fortune from us, politicians who saw the government 49% as a meal to seek for all kinds of favour…watchdogs (regulatory body) that didn’t know what to do and persistently asking for bribes at any point…Nigeria people are generally nice but the politicians are very insane…that may be irony because the people make up the politicians…
We made N3billion for the federal government of Nigeria during the joint venture, considering that the government didn't bring anything to the table/partnership except dubious debts by the previous carrier, Nigeria Airways.
The joint venture should have been the biggest African carrier by now if the partnership was allowed to grow, but the politicians KILLED it.
Nigeria is a country we SHALL NEVER consider doing business in again''
And now the Nigerian government is inviting investors to fund another attempt to bring order to aviation chaos. Prospective backers of a new “paper airline” have been assured that the government “will not be involved in management decisions and control of the airline”.
But the key decisions that any airline management would wish to make have already been taken by the government.
The aviation minister, Hadi Sirika, has stipulated a launch date: December 2018, a tricky time frame for a new airline that seeks international recognition and accreditation.
The government is already seeking to lease 15 aircraft, which will be gradually replaced and expanded by planes ordered directly from Airbus or Boeing: 15 single-aisle ordered Airbus A320s or Boeing 737s, and the same number of A330 or 787 wide-bodies.
Investors will be told where to fly the aircraft. The Nigerian government has chosen 40 domestic routes and 40 international services. It has even chosen a name, Nigeria Air, a logo and a livery of green and white. (Sadly, nothing like as dazzling as the shirts designed for the World Cup team.)
However, it is the race to get a stake in the Nigerian arline — whose home country is the continent’s most populous states and West Africa’s largest air travel hub,
and based on the smart investments done so far by Middle East carriers (Alitalia, Air Berlin etc), there is certainly a chance that they will put another couple of million dollars into this promising project.............. not.