Operators and stakeholders in the aviation sector have described the suspension of the proposed National Carrier by the Federal Government as not surprising.

They said the suspension confirmed their earlier claim that the government did not get its act right on the project that has elicited much debate because of modalities; equity structure and lack of transparency that characterised the project.

The umbrella body of domestic carriers, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), reacted through its Executive Chairman, Captain Nogie Meggison.

The AON had dismissed the concept of national carrier as a “no longer fashionable idea.”

A member of the Aviation Round Table Safety Initiative, Group Captain John Ojikutu said the suspension was evidence that the promoters of the project could not get their acts right.

He said he was not surprised about the development because the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika and other representatives of government could not provide answers to some of the questions raised about the project.

Ojikutu said: “The suspension of the national carrier project means that government could not get its acts right. Why should the project not fail, when some of us raised concerns about the equity structure, the modalities they claimed they were going to use. How come the government could not give full disclosure on who the supposed investors would be”.

“All these point to the fact that somethings were not right about the project. Perhaps, the promoters could not achieve what they wanted with the project, they have to now call it off. Some of us had always suspected that something was not very clear about the national carrier.

“Why should the government fund the so-called national carrier and fail to give details on the equity structure. Why should government have allowed competitors to be partners in the new project?”