Branson close to deal for Nigerian Airline

The trouble is that Nigerian airlines have one of the most awful records of any country anywhere. I have flown on a small number of African owned/run airlines and they were fine (Air Kenya, Zambian) but Nigeria is a different category altogether.

Thats a first for me, been accused of being PC. I am usually rather outspoken and far from PC. However, I take an active interest in West African affairs and would really like to have seen a new Nigerian backed-airline rather than another ‘Branson venture’.

I would rather a Nigerian carrier be truly that. Branson seems to be a megalomaniac of late. He wants to run an airline everywhere on earth. I would rather any money earned by a Nigerian carrier to stay in the country and not to go back to Branson and the UK.

Option A = fly on an airline using dodgy aircraft in a country with such a dodgy government that quite frankly you or I could gain an AOC if we paid enough.

Option B = fly on an airline using good aircraft that is run professionally.

Don’t be so PC!

I say good on Richard, expanding his global network, and it cant be a bad move with the amounts of money hes making!

I’ve known about this for 6 weeks but haven’t been able to say anything. There is potentially a huge market for flights from Lagos to JFK in particular as most of this traffic currently has to route through London. Gawd knows who’d want to be Lagos based though. Not me, that’s for sure!

I would rather a Nigerian carrier be truly that. Branson seems to be a megalomaniac of late. He wants to run an airline everywhere on earth. I would rather any money earned by a Nigerian carrier to stay in the country and not to go back to Branson and the UK.

It will be unfair to any Nigerian competition as ‘Virgin Nigeria’ will be backed up by the wealthy British company and will not suffer from any financial problems that the true Nigerian airlines might.

So you think it is unfair for any Western airline to fly to/from/witihin the 3rd world then?

Theres not a huge amount of competition in Nigeria, and those carriers that do exist are boycotted for safety reasons by many. The country is very rich oil wise also. Virgin already go to Port Harcourt and Lago, so some kind of connecting traffic of a high standard would be welcomed by the many westerners and Nigerians out there.

It will be unfair to any Nigerian competition as ‘Virgin Nigeria’ will be backed up by the wealthy British company and will not suffer from any financial problems that the true Nigerian airlines might.

Maybe a silly question, but what does SRB want in Nigeria? This is not likely to become a big money maker as Nigeria is not the wealthiest of nations by a long shot. Besides, is he not already commited to the American venture? That will probably take up a lot of his time and definately a lot of his money!