Nigeria Air, the country’s proposed national carrier, has received the Air Transport Licence, ATL, to commence operation.
Confirming the development via its Twitter handle on Monday, the Federal Ministry of Aviation said the ATL signed by the NCAA Director-General, Musa Nuhu, will run for a period of five years, from June 3, 2022 to June 2, 2027.
The tweet read: “The ATL certificate has been presented to Nigeria Air. Congratulations!. Nigeria Air is here and is going to provide quality service to Nigerians.”
This is coming four years after the national carrier was unveiled by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika.
In July 2018, the minister had unveiled the new national carrier at Farnborough Air Show in London.
The airline’s take off was halted following the minister’s refusal to pay $300million for the Federal Government’s five per cent stake.
But a statement by the ministry quoted the minister explaining that eight million dollars to be provided by the Federal Government represented the startup capital for offices and other facilities required for takeoff.
He added that the 300 million dollars was the entire airline cash flow funding requirements for aircraft, operations and working capital for three years.
According to him, this funding can be in the form of equity or debt.
