► NIGERIA: Air Nigeria to launch Dubai next; aims to be privatized by 2014.

With the successful launch last week of its Lagos - London (Gatwick) service using a leased Egyptair A330-200, Air Nigeria has announced that its next A330 is to arrive "in the next 20 days" with it to be deployed on their Lagos - Dubai route.

Also outlined were plans for a future Rome and Paris route (previously reported here by The African Aviation Tribune) where the chairman of Air Nigeria, Jimo Ibrahim, stated there was significant potential for business.

"He disclosed  that data available from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) showed that 58,000 passengers travelled to Rome last year; adding that Italian airline, Alitalia carried only 27,000 of these people and the rest were carried by other foreign carriers.

“So there is a beckoning market to those destinations. ‘So we will be flying Lagos-Rome-Paris. ‘We have got government approval to fly to Rome, Paris, Johannesburg and Dubai. We will start flying to Dubai before the end of this quarter”, he said."

Air Nigeria A330 at London Gatwick (Skylineraviation.de)

Of particular interest however, was the ambitious goal of turning Air Nigeria into a public listed company by 2014. 

But, can this be done, given the previous disasters that were Nigeria Airways (collapsed in 2003 due to mismanagement, corruption, over-staffing and a debt burden of over USD60million) and Air Nigeria's precursor, Virgin Nigeria (Richard Branson pulled out because of alleged government interference and under-table dodgy dealings)?

"‘I want to assure you that effective two years from now; we will be depositing Air Nigeria into your hands.  What does that mean? Air Nigeria will now have to go PLC. It will now be an airline owned by Nigerians. I will sell my shares, and then you can buy some. Air Nigeria will be in the market. So we will meet at Annual General Meetings, and then we will discuss. So that is our plans. By then, Air Nigeria will be fully Nigerian,’ Ibrahim said.

He disclosed that the Nigeria Stock Exchange had invited the company this year to come and be listed under the special registry so that Air Nigeria would be in the market.
‘You will be a shareholder, I will be a shareholder. It will be our airline,’ he added."

 Read More Here [ThisDay Nigeria]