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The decision by the Federal Government to earmark N8.5 billion for national airline in this year’s budget suggests that the dream for a national carrier could well be alive, WOLE SHADARE reports   Despondency The news of suspension of planned national carrier for Nigeria by the Federal Government late last year jolted a lot of people, who felt that Nigeria has again truncated a great opportunity to bequeath to the country an airline that would…

By Muan E’mbe Success, an English proverb goes, has many fathers while failure is an orphan. Nothing exemplifies and illustrates this saying more than the euphoria that attended the commissioning of the new terminal at  Port Harcourt International airport, Omagwa, Rivers state by President Mohammadu Buhari on October 25, 2018.  As I pen this article, Abuja is similarly agog with frenzy as President Buhari, once again mounts the rostrum today, December 20th, 2018 to commission…

  By Kabir Hadejia   The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is the umbrella body saddled with the onerous task of regulating the country’s aviation sector. With this, the authority must both be technically and procedurally competent to handle any, or all the issues in the industry. Unlike the road transport sector that is an all-comers’ affairs because its regulations are not obeyed, making it to be in total disarray, leading to colossal loss of…

The establishment of a national carrier for the country, Nigeria Air, is in top gear as a result of repeated calls from a section of the society. Nigeria Air is scheduled to commence operations on December 19, 2018. The proposed national carrier targets 81 routes, comprising 40 domestic, regional and sub-regional and 41 international routes. In the early 1960s and 1970s, Nigerians took great delight in national companies like Nigeria Airways and Nigeria National Shipping…

It was a shocking revelation, further accentuating widely held fact that over 85 per cent of accidents in aviation are caused by human factor or human error. Inexperienced pilots/engineers are even doing more damage to a sector that is life dependent. Ever wonder just who’s behind that cockpit door, flying you between Lagos and Abuja, Abuja and Accra or New York and Los Angeles or from Washington Dulles to Amsterdam? If you knew, you might…

All over the world, international airports cast the first physical image of any country. It tells a lot about the orderliness or otherwise of the government in regulating its affairs. While most countries try as much as possible to put forward a healthy image of their environment, Nigeria does the otherwise as first time visitors to the country are confronted with myriad of disorderliness. Until recently when the Lagos State Government took the decision to…

Nigerian airports in recent times won the acclaim of Nigerians and the international community, especially in the wake of the executive order for improvement to the ease of doing business across board.   Over the years and through successive administrations, the Nigeria Airports Authorities have been striving for improvements in facilities and services. However, the government Executive Order issued last year provided an added impetus to the achievement of a number of lofty goals. Among…

Aviation is a key part of the economic lifeblood of Africa. It supports 6.9 million jobs and $80 billion in GDP. It carries people and goods across and outside the continent, and brings in economic investment, tourism, trade and aid. Aviation in Africa is promising. Over the next two decades African aviation is forecast to grow at 5.4 percent a year—nearly tripling in size. The continent’s top ten fastest growing markets are growing at an…

Should Nigeria float a national airline or not? This project is gaining currency by the day. WOLE SHADARE writes that there is no better time than now to float a national airline The big question Each time people fly airlines of other countries, what readily comes to mind is, why can’t Nigeria have its own carrier? The debate around a national for the country is gaining currency by the day just as the government has…

  Their situation is very pathetic; one that you would never wish for even your enemy. They looked dejected with abject poverty playing a wry smile on their faces. They are former Nigeria Airways workers. They served the airline and the country with dedication and commitment. Many of them are dying daily waiting for their final entitlements 13 years after the airline was liquidated. At their number 10 Afisman Drive secretariat in Ikeja, Lagos, over a hundred…