By Lawani Mikairu
LAGOS — The Federal Government should not preoccupy itself with the problem of setting up a national carrier now, considering the fact that the country is going through an economic recession.

An aviation consultant and the Chief Executive Officer, FMC Aviation Services Limited, Dr. Herbert Odika, said this in Lagos while fielding questions from aviation reporters.

According to Odika, “the current domestic airlines operating in Nigeria are not making profit. The proposed national carrier may not also make profit as the aircraft type, Boeing 737, commonly used by airlines in Nigeria, is expensive to maintain.

“Our economy for now is going through a recovery process like other countries, that went through such and are doing well today. So, we are going through a recession and restructuring a lot of things. I would like to say at this point that the national carrier is not a priority for Nigeria at the moment.

“Let us get our processes right, our training right, have the versatility on the aircraft type we operate in Nigeria. We can key in with the trend now because of the associated cost, if we are able to do that, we will be able to start reporting profit and then talk of national carrier.”