The history of a national airline began in 1958 with the establishment of defunct Nigeria Airways Ltd. It retained the name, WAAC Nigeria, until 1971 when it was rebranded Nigeria Airways, the name it had until it wound up in 2003. Nigeria Airways was succeeded by Virgin Nigeria and its ground facilities were taken over by Arik Air, a local private operator. Sirika said Nigeria needed a national carrier to fully utilise its Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASA), currently under-utilised by indigenous airlines due to low capacity. They said rather than run domestic airlines out of business, the national carrier would help them grow.

Source: The Guardian June 24, 2019 09:11 UTC