The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said that there would be no local airline designated as the Nigerian national carrier, as that would be unfair to other local airlines.
Keyamo while he stated this in interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Wednesday, confirmed that the ministry was gearing towards the establishment of a proper national carrier rather than a local airline to be a flag carrier.
He stated that “I will push for one national carrier and I am working on one. Let me say this publicly now, no local airline will be a national carrier, a flag carrier.
“So, whoever thinks I am working to promote one to be a flag carrier, I am saying it as a matter of policy, it will be unfair to all the local operators.
“No local airline will be designated as a national carrier, I will not do it. We will establish a proper national carrier and people are talking to us, the Arabs are talking to us, the Chinese are talking to us, the Americans are talking to us on this already.”
“There were better deals on the table, why did we settle for this? If you give me one hour, we will go into the intricacies of the proposed agreement,” he noted.
“A flag carrier is different from a national carrier, so when we were being told that a national carrier was coming, it was not a national carrier, it was a foreign airline trying to fly Nigerian Flag,” Keyamo added.
He also said there is an ongoing criminal investigations going on by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission regarding the controversial deal.