17 Months Later: Five Aircraft For Okorocha’s Imo Air’ Yet To Arrive

Seventeen months after Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State promised to deliver five aircraft for domestic flight operations in its agreement with Dana Air, investigations revealed that the State Government is yet to do so, independentnig reports. This is as investigation revealed that the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft with the registration number 5N-SRI, Okorocha claimed was recently acquired by the State Government to provide air services to the indigenes of the state actually belongs to Dana Air. Dana Air had in January 2017, named one of the aircraft in its fleet ‘Imo Air,’ in an agreement reached with the Imo State Governor. Okorocha had said that the State was investing in the airline sub-sector and had reached an agreement with leasing companies to acquire additional four aircraft apart from the MD83 airplanes painted in Dana Air livery, but named Imo Air. However, a source close to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) confided in our correspondent that no airline with the name ‘Imo Air’ was on the list of intending carriers processing Air Operators’ Certificate (AOC) in the authority. NCAA had issued three AOCs to new intending carriers among which was Max Air, which intends to commence flight operations any moment from now. It would be recalled that Okorocha at the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, Owerri in January 2017, had claimed that Imo Air, a supposed new airline in the Nigerian aviation industry was the property of the State Government. The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 with the registration number 5N-SRI, Okorocha claimed was recently acquired by the State Government to provide air services to the indigenes of the state. Okorocha in his speech at the airport had said that the aircraft was one of the five airplanes the State Government recently acquired, adding that four others would be delivered to the state before the end of 2018. He had explained that the state ventured into the airline business to boost traffic into the state and ease the transportation of passengers and goods into the state. He said: “This is the first leg and a pilot project of Imo Air. We hope that in the future this project would blow into a big full scale airline. “We have no Air Operators’ Certificate and that is why we approached one of the leading airlines in Nigeria to manage this service for us. We believe that our partnership with Dana Air to operate Imo Air is a step in the right direction to open Imo State to the world. “We have five of these aircraft and this is the first one that we have just acquired. We hope to go to a full blown carrier by 2018. We have a partnership agreement with Dana, which spans about 10 years. We only gave them this aircraft for them to manage it for us because they are professional in the Nigerian aviation industry. “Already, about 200 of our indigenes have applied to work in the new airline and we to employ them in the airline. Also, there is 10 per cent discount for all Imo Indigenes who fly with the airline.” Mr. Kingsley Ezenwa, the Spokesman of Dana Air, in an interview with INDEPENDENT, confirmed that the Imo State Government had a partnership with the airline, but declined to comment on the ownership of the aircraft. He explained that the partnership with the State Government led to the opening of Owerri-Abuja-Owerri route, stressing that it had been able to break the monopoly on that route. He said: “The arrangement is still going fine. We can’t start up today and get everything right almost immediately or within a year. “It is a marketing partnership to promote the state, to get people to fly more or outside the state at convenient fares for the people. The essence of the partnership is also to provide jobs for the people of the state, which we have been doing since we started. “What we have with the state government is airline partnership and this is going on fine. On our own part, we are doing our part and selling tickets to air passengers. “We have not cancelled the flight to the state since we started. The Abuja-Owerri that we launched was part of the partnership, we had to break the monopoly by reducing the fare down from N40,000 to something reasonable.”]]>