By Mathew Dadiya, Abuja
The Federal Executive Council (FEC), Wednesday, approved a memorandum presented by the minister Aviation for the airport maintenance and technical support at Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano.
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika who briefed State House Correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the project is awarded to CCECC for a period of 12 months at the sum of contract is N721,266,733.64 million.
The minister while fielding questions from newsmen on the commencement of the Nigeria Air services, said that “Nigeria Air will soon start flying, we’ve got the aircrafts ready, they’re painted in the colors.”
He said that the Federal Government have crossed all the Ts and dot the Is.
Sirika said they are at stage five of the AOC issuance by NCAA, “once that is done, the airline will begin to fly.
“So there are five stages, we’ve done stages 1,2,3,4 and we are now at stage five, once the AOC is given, the aircraft is ready to start to fly.”
Asked to be precise on the takeoff date, he said because the issuance of the AOC is in the hands of NCAA, that it will be very soon without giving a date saying, “with an emphasis on soon, so as soon as we get the AOC, then we fly.”
On whether the court case by other airline operators against Nigeria Air has no bearing on the commencement, the minister said, “there’s no injunction against Nigeria Air’s operation, to my knowledge.”
He further explained that the grievances by some airlines, for example United, Azman, Max Air, Air Peace, in reference to the case that they instituted he said that has no comment about it.
The minister said he thought the newsmen were talking about something different, but if it’s that case, he had been asked before on this platform and he told them that “it’s subjudice, it’s in court, so I can’t talk about it.”
