Green Africa Airways (Q9, Lagos) has announced it has secured its Air Services Licence (ASL) and is now pursuing its Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
A statement issued last week said Green Africa Airways would, in its initial stages, operate flights within Nigeria using leased mid-sized jets. As such, it is currently in the process of raising USD100 million in initial funding.
The start-up is led by CEO and founder Babawande Afolabi, a former investment banker for Morgan Stanley who started work on the new carrier in 2014.
To ensure success, Afolabi has appointed former Caribbean Airlines (BW, Port of Spain) Vice President (Operations), Jag Singh, as Chief Operations Officer (COO) while former JetBlue Airways Vice President (Flight Operations), Bart Roberts, is Safety Review board chairman. Grupo Viva founder and former CEO, William Shaw, has been appointed to the start-up's board while former American Airlines Chief Commercial Officer, Virasb Vahidi, has been appointed as senior executive advisor.
The former ASKY Airlines (KP, Lomé) Boeing 737 captain Folu Oladipo, who was previously technical pilot at Nigeria’s largest carrier Arik Air (W3, Lagos), is Green Africa’s chief pilot.
