‘National Carrier, If Established, ‘ll Buoy Devt of Tourism in Nigeria’

Chinedu Eze

Travel and aviation experts have declared that for Nigeria to realise its full potential in tourism, it must establish a national carrier to buoy the sector.

The experts spoke at the just concluded Aviation Summit 2025 conference themed, ‘Governance Strategies for Aligning Aviation Development with Sustainable Tourism Goals,’ and they noted that all the countries that have developed their aviation industry in Africa have national airlines.

Currently, the projected revenue contained in a global travel industry database released by Statista, indicates that Nigeria’s travel sector will generate about $2.953 billion by the end of 2025 and the revenue is expected to rise to $3.746 billion by 2027.

However, the experts said that the revenue would multiply if a national carrier is established to support the sector.

Travel expert and organiser of Akwaaba African Travel Market, Ambassador Ikechi Uko, in his presentation said that some countries establish national airlines to use them and support tourism and trade and gave example with South Africa Airways (SAA), which has recorded losses over the years, but the airline has supported tourism and trade that rake in billions of dollars to South Africa economy every year.

He said that top countries that are doing well in tourism include: Morocco, Egypt, Tanzania, South Africa, Tunisia, Algeria, Zambia, Mauritius, Cape Verde and Seychelles, noting that most of these countries have national airlines.

“Every country that is doing well in tourism is doing well because of a national carrier. It is not possible to drive your tourism now without an airline. So, if we want to develop our tourism, the airline has to come in. And a private airline is only responsible to its shareholders. They are only interested in profit. But a national airline is not driven by profit, it Is driven by national interest.

“So, it can market tourism. You cannot force a private airline to market your tourism. I am having event in Ghana, the national airline of Rwanda is already sponsoring it. The national airline of Italy is sponsoring it. They are doing it to extend their country’s brand. If you check in East Africa, none of the airlines outside the Ethiopian Airlines is making money. But the countries are sponsoring the airlines. Why? I will tell you why. Every country that has a national airline, their tourism numbers are going up. The only country in East Africa that does not have a national airline and it is not doing tourism is Burundi,” he said.

He remarked that since Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania started their airline, their tourism numbers have gone up.

“So, the airlines are not set up to be profitable and even if they are losing money, but the country is making money from tourism and trade, that is a good. It is not possible to expect a private airline in Nigeria to come and start losing money to grow your tourism. So, that is why Nigeria is not playing, because we need an airline to drive tourism,” he said.