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Akinpelu Dada with the agency report
Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise, Africa's largest airline, said it is in talks with the Nigerian government for a new national carrier .
Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise's Managing Director, Tewolde GebreMariam, was Federal Foreign Minister Hadi Sirika, who said the federal government had said earlier this month that a new airline would start operations in the Farnborough Air Show in England.
The most populous nation of Africa has struggled to support a viable local airline for decades, with a succession of carriers collapsing or slicing roads. This has made the oil-rich country dependent on services provided mainly by Persian Gulf and European carriers for voyages beyond the region.
Ethiopian Air became the only profitable African carrier making Addis Ababa a hub for travel. around the continent and beyond, replicating the carrier hub model of the Persian Gulf. Ethiopian Air already has stakes in Malawi Airlines and Asky Airlines in Togo, and aims to secure holdings in new carriers in Zambia, Chad, Mozambique and Guinea through the end of the year, while helping to manage existing operators in Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Earlier Tuesday, the Ethiopian government announced its intention to buy a 20% stake in Eritrea Airlines as part of a new Wednesday, Tewolde, who spoke in London, said that he was expecting to face competition on the Nigerian project of Qatar Airways, which holds stakes in airlines, including IAG SA, owner of British Airways. , and Latam Airlines Group SA, the largest South American operator. Qatar CEO Akbar Al Baker, in London for the same Skytrax World Airline Awards event, told Bloomberg that this was not the case.
Nigeria announced last week that its planned national carrier would be unveiled on July 18. The airline will be managed as a public-private partnership and is expected to become profitable in three years, according to the government.
Sirika tweeted Tuesday in Farnborough that he had had talks with Airbus SE about sourcing supplies and had planned to meet Boeing Co.
The former national carrier, Nigeria Airways , s' collapsed in 2003, with the successor of Air Nigeria, founded as a joint venture with Virgin Group Richard Branson, in 2012. The private operator Arik Air was taken over by The Nigeria asset management company last year, the main long-haul flights to suspend.
Ethiopian Air was working separately on a new order for the Boeing 787, said Tewolde, with a possible purchase this year. The agreement could be for variant 787-9 and would probably double the size of the existing fleet.
The carrier is also studying the Airbus A350-1000 and is trying to assess whether the model will work well enough from Addis Ababa, which combines a warm climate with an altitude of nearly 8,000 feet, making it a test place for airplanes. He already operates the smallest A350-900 aircraft.
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