FG To Open Airline Bid Tuesday, Complete Airport Concession Midyear

The federal government has said bids will open for expression of interest for technical partners on the national carrier on March 8, 2022, just as it targets completing the concession of the four international airports in the second quarter.

The Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, disclosed these in a chat with aviation correspondents in Abuja where he said: “The Transaction Adviser is going to request for proposal on Monday, February 7, 2022 while bid submissions will begin from February 8. We will give them some weeks to respond to the request, and then we will announce the winning bidder.”

He also said the government will retain five per cent airline share and will proceed with the Air Operators Certificate which has commenced since.

“I believe by April, we should be able to have our AOC ready, which means we are ready to start. And once the AOC is in our hands, the offices are secured, the interim board is being constituted, and they finish signing the contract, we will announce who they are,” the minister stated.

Sirika said the interim board members were a mix of Nigerians and foreigners. “They will begin operations between now and July,” he stated revealing the airline will start with Lagos and Abuja flights.

On the concession, Sirika said, “The transaction advisers for the concession had finished the Outline Business Case and had got the Request for Qualification. “We’ve pre-qualified the people and they’ve been issued a Request for Proposal.

“Our timetable is for the first quarter of this year. Well, I can see that it is still happening; let’s be very ambitious, but certainly it will end in the second quarter and all the (identified) airports will be concessioned,” he said.