Cedarjet From United Kingdom, joined May 1999, 7713 posts, RR: 55 Reply 2, posted (8 years 6 months 1 day 12 hours ago) and read 1937 times:
Oh god. Branson can frankly spend his time more productively. Just one quote, then: "It is morally bankrupt for [Virgin] to have applied in the first place." Haha, good one. That's from Capt. Dele Ore, an "aviation consultant" who was director of operations of Nigeria Airways while the airline was robbed of US$400 million in hard currency and 300 million naira ($2.15 million), resulting in the death of the airline and leaving Nigeria (not a poor country by any means) without a national airline or any longhaul links to the rest of the world.
I know this will sound really racist (please see my critique of Love Actually in non-av, where I whine about, among other things, a lack of black people in Richard Curtis' films) but Nigeria simply isn't part of the civilised world. It's got nothing to do with the colour of it's peoples' skin, but there is a culture in that country which a white public school boy (Branson) will not be able to overcome. Morals? Ethics? Hard work? Forget it. It's like Nigerians in the UK: what do you do? "Business." Yeah? What kind of business? "Business." See also: those emails asking for your bank account number.
"Virigin Nigeria Will Have Issues" - oh yeah.
fly Saha Air 707s daily from Tehran's downtown Mehrabad to Mashhad, Kish Island and Ahwaz
Yukimizake From Japan, joined Mar 2004, 529 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (8 years 6 months 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 1819 times:
This year's Transparency International survey on corruption sees Nigeria as the third most corrupt country in the world, after Bangladesh and Haiti. This is actually an improvement from last year when they came in second place.
Seems like a crazy place to start up a new airline, but maybe Branson is bored these days and is looking for some adventure.
'Opfer müssen gebracht werden (Sacrifices must be made)' - Otto Lilienthal
EurostarVA From Bahrain, joined May 2002, 1296 posts, RR: 8 Reply 5, posted (8 years 6 months 21 hours ago) and read 1626 times:
Cedarjet,
Your concerns are totally valid. It is difficult to imagine a realized Virgin Nigeria considering all the hurdles (and misconceptions, if I may add) in Nigeria today. We must all remember that Nigeria is still recovering from decades of corrupt military rule.
I think you would agree that Nigeria's private sector is perhaps the most dynamic in Africa and Nigerians are known to be merchants and entrepreneurs (VERY hard working indeed). To demonstrate my point, look at the independent carriers. They are totally ready and capable despite paying exuberant $$$ for insurance and airport/nav fees (not to mention fuel!!).
As for the specific Virgin/Nigeria relationship, it will only fail if the Govt. doesn't move to convince the masses this is the best Nigeria can get for now in its bid to boast a functional national airline. Corruption and other challenges are not impossible to overcome. As proof to my statement, look at MTN (South Africa's) telecom investment in Nigeria. MTN just recorded millions of dollars in profit.
Nigeria Airways' ex-staff: They can all face reality, they were not even showing up at work. Practically, Nigeria Airways died many years ago. In recent times it operated as a glorified travel agency, wet leasing from whatever airline it could RIP off (refer to the Air Atlanta saga, or New York route in SAA partnership where the latter threw about 60 seats to Nigeria Airways, we are talking 747-300 capacity here).
In conclusion, I think that most of the people behind the opposition to this deal are out to protect their own interest and not that of the country. If given the chance, Virgin Nigeria can succeed, and formidably.
Cedarjet From United Kingdom, joined May 1999, 7713 posts, RR: 55 Reply 6, posted (8 years 6 months 20 hours ago) and read 1612 times:
EuroStarVA: "I think that most of the people behind the opposition to this deal are out to protect their own interest and not that of the country." Exactly - this was the original Nigeria Airways' downfall. I may have been harsh in places, I don't doubt there are millions of hardworking and smart Nigerians working on legitimate enterprises in their own country and outside of it. But I don't see this working, there are too many people who will take the piss and care not a jot if their country earns a terrible reputation and can't maintain a national airline because of the selfishness of a few individuals.
And I think the good people at SAA are probably a lot more streetwise and knowledgable about the culture of Nigeria than Dickie Branson - and they couldn't make it work.
Go Branson (but Venezuela needs an airline, they've got oil and cash, but a much more favourable business culture - go Visasa Virgin!!).
fly Saha Air 707s daily from Tehran's downtown Mehrabad to Mashhad, Kish Island and Ahwaz
LX23 From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2004, 347 posts, RR: 3 Reply 7, posted (8 years 6 months 16 hours ago) and read 1490 times:
Cedarjet: Very true about venezuela...however, until the late 1990s, Venezuela was essentially just as bad as Nigeria... The new government still has corruption problems, though they have improved marekdly.
MaverickM11 From United States of America, joined Apr 2000, 15734 posts, RR: 48 Reply 8, posted (8 years 5 months 4 weeks 15 hours ago) and read 1298 times:
Big risk, big payoff. Anyone that can provide dependable, conistent service to Nigeria will print money. They'll have to use a significant portion of that money to pay off the government crooks (redundant in Nigeria) but they could probably mint money just carrying the passengers stranded around the globe from the last failed Nigerian airline fiasco.
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