Ethiopian Airlines, one of African aviation success story has been commissioned to help Nigeria set up a national carrier, the chief executive of Ethiopian Air has said.
“We are also in talks with Ghana government to establish Ghana Airways but the biggest market which is Nigeria has been a challenge, to be honest with you. We make sure that when we start something, we start professionally and make sure that it succeeds.”
The Ethiopian Airlines chief had last year disclosed move to help Nigerian government to establish a national carrier, but the then minister of aviation, Siraki denied the story. Shortly after, the government announced the floating of Nigeria Air, which later moribund before take-off.
On Friday, he said he had been meeting with the Federal Government and private sector players on plans to establish an international carrier for Nigeria.
According to the airline, the lack of a national carrier in Nigeria that could compete favourably with other international brands was not good for the country and for Africa.
He noted that the non-existence of an indigenous airline in Nigeria that is fully involved in international operations was a big threat to the aviation sector in Africa.
Gebremariam observed that with the demise of Nigeria Airways, there has not been a very strong airline in Nigeria that has the capacity to compete effectively with other large international carriers.
He explained that non-African carriers had the biggest share in terms of percentage volume on international routes in African countries, as well as across the globe.
“Nigeria is a very large country but unfortunately, since the demise of Nigeria Airways, we are unfortunate that we don’t have a strong carrier. So, this concern is part of continental concern because in Africa, non-African carriers have the biggest shares.
"It is around 80-20 percent ratio. 80 percent of the traffic between Africa and the rest of the world is carried by non-African carriers.
“The homegrown carriers have only 20 percent of the market. This is not fair and it used to be 60 percent some years ago but now it is coming down. We are also threatened because all of us in Africa are only 20 percent of the market," Gebremariam said.
“So, in a declining trend, there is a possibility that the market share can be zero. So, they will wipe us out. We have to make sure that we work together with all African countries to ensure that there are strong homegrown indigenous carriers. We have done this with Asky in Togo and we want to do it in Nigeria.”
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