Nigerian startup Rano Air (R4, Kano) reportedly has secured four EMB-145LRs for a planned debut in 2022, according to Francophone aviation news provider Newsaero.
According to Rano Air's social media posts, the company in January appeared to have restarted its drive for an Air Transport License (ATL) with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). It published part of an NCAA letter to Rano Air dated January 17, 2022, and said, "progress, step-by-step it shall come to fruition".
This could not be immediately confirmed, as neither the regulator nor Rano Air owner Auwalu Rano responded to requests for comment from ch-aviation.
Rano Air had initially applied to the NCAA for an ATL in mid-2020 to operate scheduled and non-scheduled passenger and cargo services within and outside of Nigeria, according to its social media post dated July 19, 2020.
The company in November started advertising online for key personnel, including EMB-145 engineers.
Meanwhile, ch-aviation research reveals that four E145LRs were deregistered from the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) aircraft registry on February 23, 2022, for export to Nigeria. The same aircraft have been identified as Rano Air's future fleet.
They are N11548 (msn 145565), N13553 (msn 145585), N14568 (msn 145628), and N16546 (msn 145562). All are around 20-years old and were previously operated by ExpressJet Airlines (Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) under the United Express brand.
According to the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission, Rano Air Limited was registered in Nigeria on September 27, 2019 (company number 1618851), with NGN500 million naira (USD1.2 million) paid-in share capital. Its head office is in Kano, the capital of Kano state in northern Nigeria, the country's second-largest city after Lagos.
