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Nigeria Planning National Airline On $2B Aviation Expansion

Nigeria Planning National Airline On $2B Aviation Expansion

Written by Chris Kay and Eleni Giokos  | From Bloomberg

Nigeria, a country of 170 million people that has no national airline, is in talks with private investors about setting up a new flag-carrier as it expands airport infrastructure, Aviation Minister Osita Chidoka said.

Nigeria will spend about $2 billion over four years on rebuilding old airport terminals and constructing new ones as demand for travel swells, Chidoka said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Africa to be aired Oct. 3. The government wants to start a national carrier within the same period to tap growth.

“It will be commercially run,” Chidoka said in New York. “Conversations are on across many possible private sector organizations, both local airlines in Nigeria and then some international airlines.”

While Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise and Kenya Airways Ltd. have emerged as global players in recent years, Africa’s most populous nation has lacked a major carrier since the demise of Nigeria Airways a decade ago. That’s allowed fast-expanding Gulf operators such as Dubai-based Emirates to join older European players in grabbing the most lucrative long-haul traffic.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, signed a $500 million loan agreement last year with the Export-Import Bank of China to fund new terminals in four cities including the capital Abuja, the commercial hub of Lagos, the southern oil center of Port Harcourt and the northern city of Kano. The contract was won by China Civil Engineering Construction Corp.

Branson Experiment

“We are totally changing the face of four key airports,” Chidoka said in the interview. Nigeria is studying “the possibility of attracting private capital to do that.”

The government is also building 13 cargo airports across the country for the export of perishable agricultural produce such as pineapples, mangoes and tomatoes.

Read more at Bloomberg