The relaunch procedure of the national carrier Nigeria Air has been suspended indefinitely. The Abuja government decided this on the grounds that it was not a project carried out in the national interest. The leader of the initiative, in fact, was the state company Ethiopian Airlines, which wanted to buy 49% of the Nigerian airline, leaving 46% to private investors, while the Abuja executive would have kept 5%.

"It was not Air Nigeria. It was only painted as Air Nigeria. It was Ethiopian Airlines trying to fly our flag. If it is so, why not allow a local airline to fly our flag? Why bring in a foreign airline to fly our flag? Air Nigeria will be for the full benefit of Nigeria, not with 60% of the profits going to another country", explained Nigerian Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo.

As of March 2024, the Ethiopian airline said it was still "optimistic" about the possibility of starting Nigeria Air operations as soon as possible. To this end, it had also acquired three Boeing B-737/8 aircraft, which in the meantime have been implemented in the fleets of airlines affiliated with Ethiopian Airlines. The project to relaunch the company through a consortium with Nigerian investors led by Ethiopian Airlines was therefore put on hold.

On the same topic, see also the article published by AVIONEWS.