Ethiopian Airlines’ Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mesfin Tasew, has attributed the failure to establish a national carrier for Nigeria to political interference.
Tasew explained that Ethiopian Airlines intended to assist the Nigerian government in setting up a profitable airline, but the process was hindered by opposition from Nigerian airlines and political factors.
The initiative to create Nigeria Air, which began under former President Buhari’s administration and was managed by former aviation minister Hadi Sirika, has been mired in controversy. The current aviation minister, Festus Keyamo, has expressed doubts about the deal’s benefits for Nigeria.
This marks the first time the Ethiopian Airlines CEO has publicly addressed the contentious deal since the current administration halted it.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Tasew confirmed that the project to assist Nigeria in establishing an airline has been terminated.
He said, “We had a great hope of establishing a very strong national carrier for Nigeria. We started but unfortunately it didn’t become successful after the change of government in Nigeria; but that project is closed now.
“We don’t have a current plan to go to Nigeria as it stands. We don’t have the intention to partner with any of the Nigerian airlines to date because it has been politicised.
“We tried to help the country by partnering with the government and other institutional investors in Nigeria to use our expertise, our experience and establish a reliable airline that would be profitable in the short term. But as you may have read from the media, it was not welcomed by the Nigerian airlines.
“They considered it in a wrong direction. They believed that if Ethiopian Airlines goes into Nigeria it will hurt their business; which is not right. Our intention was to help the country but since they objected to the idea, there is no need for Ethiopian Airlines to go there as long as they don’t accept it, we don’t want to be a problem there.”
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