The federal government has said there is no truth in the story making the rounds that it plans to transform Arik Air into a national carrier, but said it is perfecting the legal framework for the establishment of a national carrier.
According to Joe Obi, special media assistant to the minister of Aviation, the government is currently working on the legal framework for the establishment of a national airline.
He said government had no plans to invest its own money in the proposed national airline, but will work out the template for a national airline, including the ownership structure.
He said that after this is done, any Nigerian airline or group of airlines could come, pull their resources together to undergo a screening process, and if the airline or the group of airlines meet up with the requirement, then that airline could be designated as the national airline.
He said it was not government’s business to actually float an airline, stressing that any airline that must be designated as national airline must meet up with the criteria yet to be set up by government.
On what the criteria are, Obi said government was still working on it.
Arik Air also denied that the federal government had plans to convert it into a national airline.
Banji Ola, spokesman for Arik Air, said the airline was not discussing in that line with the government. “There is no such plan,” he said.