The aviation industry promises to be exciting, as three airlines have shown commitment to begin service, amid the COVID-19 crisis that has seriously affected the sector.
The airlines are Nigeria Green Africa; an airline that promises to reshape the nation’s aviation’s aviation industry with its state-of-the art aircraft. Others are United Nigeria Airline and Nigerian Eagle.
They are set to commence full commercial operation soon. Green Africa owned by Babawande Afolabi, is now completing the process of acquiring the Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC), which will be issued by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), a required step before any airline can start flying passengers.
Green Africa’s leadership team includes two well-experienced leaders in the global aviation industry; Neil Mills – President and Chief Operating Officer and Kiran Koteshwar – Chief Financial Officer.
The latest news from the airline is the planned unveiling of its crew uniform tagged “The Runway,” which will be made public in due course. The current view of their website (www.greenafrica.com) bears this information and those interested in viewing the virtual launch are encouraged to subscribe for viewing ahead. In December 2020, the airline sent its pilots on a type-rating training.
The pilots are Folu Oladipo (Chief Pilot), Victor Yem, John Ayerume, Stephen Okereke, Ladi Ogun, and Israel Eloho. While Green Africa is yet to provide detailed information about its launch and routes networks, the public continues to speculate ahead of its launch which the company says is on track for this year.
The company continues to scale-up the manpower required for the start of operations and some of the newly recruited cabin crew members (Adefolabi Ogunnaike, Rosemary Uagbor, Afolabi Modupe, Juliana Aku, Aderounmu Yetunde, Okere Ijeoma, Chieke Immaculate, and Abimbola Segun) were also recently sent for type-rating training.
According to a source at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), who is well aware of the plans of the new carrier, “the airline is serious, they mean business and could start soon, as they are close to acquiring the Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC)”.
This stance corroborates the statement of the Director- General of NCAA in late 2020 when he said the country could witness additional four airlines this year 2021. Green Africa continues to be on everyone’s lips in the industry as one of the airlines.