NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

*After The Demise of VirginNigeria,This Eagle Must Fly High By Lateef Lawal Four years ago, when Virgin Atlantic with some powerful Nigerian foistered Virgin Nigeria on the air transport scene, hell was let loose by stakeholders as to the sincerity of those behind the venture.Specifically, members of the Airline Operators of Nigeria(AON) raised eyebrows on many aspects of the memorandum of understanding(MOU) signed between Richard Branson,Chairman of Virgin Atlantic and Nigerian Officials in the Ministry of Aviation. The AON, cried foul over the reservation of certain foreign routes for Virgin Nigeria to the detriment of already established registered Nigerian carriers. Also at issue was the 49 per cent stake the Federal Government conceded to Virgin Atlantic in Virgin Nigeria, making the British carrier the single institutional largest shareholder in the venture, while existing Nigerian registered airlines were barred from investing into Virgin Nigeria. In the midst of all these crisis, I wrote a piece in the Nigerian Commercial Aviation News edition then titled: "Virgin Nigeria, In Whose Interest?". I tried to marshal all the points raised against the venture , including the total dominance of its management by officials seconded from Britain's Virgin Atlantic with huge technical and management fees to go along with. Apart from the apparent capital flight engendered in this venture, it portrayed Nigerians in the field as incompetent and second hand citizens in their own country not fit for empolyment into top managerial positions. Sadly enough then, the Nigerian government looked the other side by refusing to consider serious issues raised and the negative picture been painted. In addition, I did wrote then that putting Virgin Nigeria, a new entrant into the market on a long-haul route where the likes of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic hold sway was a suicide mission as there was no way the new airline could compete with the two foreign carriers on the Lagos-London-Lagos. Nobody seemed to listen then. Today, we are all wiser! Virgin Nigeria has withdrawn from that route to concentrate on domestic and regional. Not long ago, Virgin Atlantic started withdrawing its officials and technical partnership with Virgin Nigeria. The Board of the airline did well by not wasting time in replacing all the top management team with competent Nigerians/Africans. This led to the emergence of a former deputy Managing Director of Aero Contractors, Captain Dapo Olumide as the acting Managing Director and early this year was confirmed as the de-facto Chief Executive Officer. Events of the past few months have shown that Africa and especially Nigeria has what it takes to administer an airline/aviation business. One has to really commend the Board of of the airline in giving Captain Olumide and his team the needed support to re-brand Virgin Nigeria into Nigerian Eagle Airlines coupled with the restructuring of the airline to meet with the current dispensation, especially the choice of Ethiopia Airways as the technical partner to the new brand called Nigerian Eagle Airlines. We wish the airline, its management and staff properous flights into the future in air travel market, with the hope that this latest venture will truly be in Nigeria and Nigerians interest.