The Failure of Nigeria Airways Article 2022

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL: FAILURE OF NIGERIA AIRWAY
Research Proposal: Failure of Nigeria Airway
Student’s name:
University:
Author’s note:

1RESEARCH PROPOSAL: FAILURE OF NIGERIA AIRWAY
Table of Contents
Title............................................................................................................................................2
Background................................................................................................................................2
Objectives...................................................................................................................................3
Literature Survey........................................................................................................................4
The development of air transportation in Nigeria (Akpoghomeh 1999)...........................4
Service Quality, Perceived Value and Customer Satisfaction as determinant of Airline
choice in Nigeria (Adeola and Adebiyi 2014)..................................................................5
Why a Nigeria national airline will likely never get off the ground (Onyeiwu 2018).......5
Method.......................................................................................................................................6
Sample........................................................................................................................................6
Timing........................................................................................................................................7
Reporting and Output.................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

2RESEARCH PROPOSAL: FAILURE OF NIGERIA AIRWAY
Title
The Failure of Nigeria Airways
Background
Nigeria is a middle-income country governed by a mixed market economy. It is, an
emerging market with growth in manufacturing, service, technology, communication and
financial sectors (Onoh 2017). However, one intriguing issue that has been tormenting
Nigeria is its lack of a national airline.
Previously, several attempts have been made by the Nigerian government to launch a
nationalized, government-owned airline service. None of them ultimately came into fruition.
Nigeria Airways Ltd., commonly known as Nigeria Airways was the only government airline
operating in Nigeria till 2003 before it ceased its operation. It was founded in 1958 after the
dissolution of West African Airways Corporation (WAAC) and carried the name WAAC
Nigeria. Further, in 1971 it was rebranded as Nigeria Airways. The government of Nigeria
held a 51% share until 1961, after which it boosted its participation and owned 100% of the
shares. It has served the nation as it flag carrier until the company was again dissolute. (Lyth
2016)
Since 2003, foreign airlines such as British Airways, Emirates are operating in the
country. Even other African countries, with relative low ranking economy as well, are
successfully operating their national airlines. For example, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda all
have their national carriers, on which Nigerian travellers largely depend. Even Croatia, a

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country with only one-fifth population of the Nigerian capital, Lagos, has its own national
flag-bearer airline. (Lyth 2016)
Nigerian government, in their latest attempt of revival of the national airline,
announced the launch of a new national airline in the 2018 International Air Show in London.
The brand, to be known as Nigeria Air, would be a joint venture by the Nigerian government
and private investors, amounting to an estimated cost of $300 million. Also, the aviation
minister Hadi Sirka asserted that the government would not be involved in the management
and decision making of the airline. The government also announced that it has already trying
to lease 15 aircrafts. Further, they would be replaced by aircrafts ordered from either Airbus
or Boeing- 15 single-aisle Airbus A320s or Boeing 737s, along with another 15 aircrafts from
Airbus A3380s or Boeing 787 wide bodies. The government also reported that 40 domestic
and 40 international routes have been decided. A working logo and the brand name Nigeria
Air have also been decided. The expected launch date was set to December 2018 (Onyeiwu
2018). All that was left to lock on was a partnering investor. However, the government failed
to deliver their promise and reportedly abandoned the plan by stating the obvious factors such
as unavailability of investors and other structural insufficiencies.
Objectives
The objective of the research is to find out the root cause of the failure of Nigeria
airways. The specific research question that it tries to answer is why did Nigeria Airways
failed to compete in the aviation industry, while other airlines, both nationalized and private,
are emerging as strong businesses in and around Nigeria. The research will try to figure out
probable causes of infrastructural, economic, political and social aspects of the failure as well
as it would draw a comparison of Nigeria Airways and other domestic and international Flag
Carrier airlines.

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Nigeria has a population of 180 million people. Among them there is a market of 15
million people estimated in aviation market, growing at a 5% rate per year. The overall
growth rate of African airline market is an estimated 7.5%, while the average growth in the
international aviation market is 7.9% as of the year 2017. To meet this growing demand of air
travel in African territory, it wold require around 970 more aircrafts by 2032 amounting to an
estimated $126 million of business. Moreover, the African continental territory constitutes a
staggering 12% of the world population, increasing exponentially in each passing year.
Despite the growth in both population and air travel estimation, the larger scope of air travel
market in Africa is still unexploited. Air travel in Africa holds only 1% of the global air travel
market. (IATA.org, 2018)
In this context, a research into the causes of the absence of a national airline in
Nigeria is worth venturing. The primary objective of the research is to examine why in such a
potential market, the government of Nigeria has failed to launch a flag carrier airline. The
secondary objective is to comprehend the drawbacks and limitations of the programme. To
elucidate, the research will try to figure out why the stakeholders have failed to resuscitate the
program and why the airline travellers have chosen to patronize other airways than Nigeria
Airways.
Therefore, the study will try to look into the reasons for the failure of Nigeria Airline,
why it is not operating in the aviation industry and will try to devise further recommendations
that could aid the crisis.
Literature Survey
The development of air transportation in Nigeria (Akpoghomeh 1999)
The article reviews the development of the Nigerian civil aviation industry since
1920s, particularly focusing on the time frame of 1980s. The paper examines the institutional

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framework, infrastructural provision and partial deregulation of the national aviation industry
of Nigeria. It also analyses the current crisis in the industry with emphasis on the demise of
Nigeria Airways.
The research suggests that excessive bureaucratic complications, government
intervention and the lack of a comprehensive aviation policy is are responsible for the
collapse of Nigeria Airways. Poor management and business principles also have contributed
to the demise to a great extent. Further, it recommends complete deregulation as the solution
of the crisis.
Service Quality, Perceived Value and Customer Satisfaction as determinant of Airline
choice in Nigeria (Adeola and Adebiyi 2014)
The article examines the criteria for customer service, customer satisfaction and
preferences to determine the perceived choices of airline traveling in Nigeria. As related to
the basic research question, this paper may offer some insight regarding why people are
choosing and patronising other airlines than Nigeria Airways. The article suggests that the
ability of identifying the customers’ want, needs and satisfaction play major role in the
success of an aviation business. Continuous research is a necessary prerequisite to identify
the said factors, which Nigeria Airways may have lacked and eventually failed.
Why a Nigeria national airline will likely never get off the ground (Onyeiwu 2018).
The article is a report on the recent incidents and factors related to the government
announcement of launching a new national airlines and the following failure of the promise.
The study may help the current research in terms of providing an overview of the entire
situation pertaining to the crisis. In this article a detailed description of the announcement and
the future plans are described. The author critically reviews and presents the status of the
Nigerian aviation industry in recent times. The article also points out the difficulties and

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challenges Nigeria Airways has faced over the time and tries to determine the constraints that
may arise in the future. In conclusion, the author presents a very negative and pessimistic
remark on the resuscitation of the national airline.
Method
The design of the research will be descriptive and analytical. It will follow a
mixed method approach to reach the possible outcome. As per the plan, the research will
utilize participating and non-participating observations, surveys and secondary data analysis
or archival study. The research could also benefit from utilizing a focus group. However, that
has to be arranged and organized with the help of the funding agency. (Creswell and Poth
2017)
Due to financial and time constraints, the research will be unable to gather
primary data sources such as interviews or surveys. However, the plan is to develop the
research utilizing non-controlled and non-participant observations, along with several other
external sources of information such as journals, newspapers, government reports, books and
online materials.
Sample
The research primarily aims to gather data from relevant peer reviewed sources. The
primary objective of the study, as has been mentioned earlier, is to identify the root causes for
the failure of the national airline. Hence, it is important to look into government reports and
neutral, unbiased news articles to present a complete picture of the entire issue. Further,
scholarly articles and books will be referred to understand the history and development of the
crisis. This will also strengthen the research with their insights and assessments of the issue.

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For the secondary objective of the research, which is to find out the reasons for non-
cooperation of the stakeholders, some surveys and interviews may be required. However, due
to time and budget constraints, the procedure is still not fully outlined yet. Instead, the
feedbacks and reports from travellers and other stakeholders available online could be useful
in this regard.
Timing
Activity Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8
Formulate research
question
√
Research designing √ √
Literature review √ √ √
Data collection √ √
Data analysis √ √
First draft √
Second draft √
Final draft √
Reporting and Output
The purpose of this study in part is to reflect gaps in my existing knowledge about the
failure of Nigerian airways. However, in order to internally validate the research, unbiased
reports and assessments are to be explored. The research design being a descriptive one,
could not offer a ground hypothesis. It will, eventually triangulate data from different sources

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and comprehend the current situation. This is precisely the limitation of the study too. Any
bias or inclination towards any party within the stakeholder group may affect the neutrality
and authenticity of the data sources, hampering the conclusion eventually.
References
Adeola, M.M. and Adebiyi, S.O., 2014. Service quality, perceived value and customer
satisfaction as determinant of airline choice in Nigeria. International Letters of Social
and Humanistic Sciences, 20, pp.66-80.
Akpoghomeh, O.S., 1999. The development of air transportation in Nigeria. Journal of
Transport Geography, 7(2), pp.135-146.
Creswell, J.W. and Poth, C.N., 2017. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing
among five approaches. Sage publications.
Iata.org. (2018). 2017 Marked by Strong Passenger Demand, Record Load Factor. [online]
Available at: https://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2018-02-01-01.aspx [Accessed
18 Aug. 2019].
Lyth, P.J., 2016. Air transport. Routledge.
Onoh, J.K., 2017. The Nigerian oil economy: From prosperity to glut. Routledge.
Onyeiwu, S. (2018). Why a Nigeria national airline will likely never get off the ground.
[online] Quartz Africa. Available at: https://qz.com/africa/1430887/nigeria-airways-
airline-plan-was-never-going-to-take-off/ [Accessed 16 Aug. 2019].

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