Firm Pledges to Provide Aircraft for National Carrier

To quickly actualise the birth of new national airline, the federal government has been urged to provide $2.1billion for the acquisition of 33 aircraft for the start of a formidable national carrier in the country.

The call was made by a former Nigerian Airways Limited retiree and now Chief Executive Officer of Luz International Limited, John Oguadimma.

Confirming this promise to newsmen at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, Oguadinma said that his organisation would fast tract the process of forming the new national carrier and run it profitably for the country for specific number of years.

Oguadinma stressed that out of the $2.1billion, $1.42million should be sent directly to Boeing manufacturer to procure eight Boeing 747-8 freighter aircraft and two Boeing 777 long range aircraft and five Boeing 737-800 series for the local routes and other Africa destinations.

He also said that another $158 million should be paid to Bombardier aircraft manufacturer of Canada to procure 13 aircraft to serve all the local routes across the states in Nigeria and some West African countries.

According to him, in total 20 aircraft would be gotten form Boeing manufacturer and 13 aircraft from Bombardier making it 33 aircraft in all.

“1 am making bold to say that if $2.1billion is brought out today and paid to the manufacturer for the acquisition of the aircraft, it will remain $800million and out of it, $700million will be used for the administration and $100million will be used to kick-start the operation of the airline” he said.

The CEO of Luz International Limited affirmed that if given the opportunity to run the airline, the new national carrier would generate the tune of N7billion annually for the government.

He said that most airline operators were making money from their operations stressing that people had been cheating the country for a long time by siphoning the money generated from the airline citing the case of Nigeria Airways.