In a development that will surprise many Nigerians, investigations show that the Boeing 737-800 series aircraft which the federal government flew into Abuja for the unveiling of Nigeria Air belongs to Ethiopia Airlines.
According to a report by Daily Trust, the aircraft took off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at 9:55am on Friday and landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, at 12:43 p.m.
The newspaper reports that the aircraft is owned by Ethiopian Airlines and that it flew for its original airline up till Sunday.
Flightradar, the popular flight tracking website, said the aircraft operated between Tel Aviv and Mogadishu, Somalia, still on May 21, 2023.
However, Ethiopian Airlines is a majority shareholder in Nigeria Air project.
Meanwhile, minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika who announced the landing of the aircraft was silent on whether or not the aircraft was purchased for the project.
However, Politics Nigeria recalls that last year, the minister told journalists that the Federal Executive Council approved the leasing of three aircraft for the carrier.
He said:
“We have said in our outline business case, which was earlier approved, that we are starting with three aircraft for the first instance and then we progress. We will have a mixture of Airbus and Boeings because every airline that will grow big uses the two.
“We will start with domestic flights and then we grow to become international and then we move to become regional and intercontinental. There are challenges currently in our aviation industry but it is a global phenomenon and it will not last forever because aviation is a very resilient sector. Certainly, we will overcome these problems.”
