Journalist confirms Ethiopian Airlines ET 8950 was repainted into Nigeria Air and it’s heading back to Addis Ababa

Ethiopian Airlines Plane Repainted And Rebranded As Nigeria Air, Just For Buhari To Boast Before Leaving Office. 

The flight, which took off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia arrived in the country on the 26th of May, 2023.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika also took to his Twitter page to share a video of the plane’s arrival, saying the project has been long, tedious, and difficult.

He however thanked God for the eventual success as well as every stakeholder for their support.

However, checks by Daily Trust revealed that the aircraft is owned by Ethiopian Airlines as the world ‘ET-APL’ is written on the wing of planes operated by Ethiopian Airlines.

This generated outrage online with many Nigerians criticizing the federal government for claiming ownership.

In a post via Twitter on Saturday, David Hundeyin accused the federal government of engaging in a hurried paint job that would be removed in Addis Ababa.

David Hundeyin wrote: “Behold your freshly commissioned “Nigeria Air” Boeing 737 heading back to Addis Ababa right now as we speak, where the hurried paint job will be removed and it will go back into @flyethiopian regular service.

Job done for @hadisirika

You’re welcome @daily_trust.”

Please see details below:

Kelechi Deca wrote:

Behold Your Air Nigeria.

I asked someone to kindly copy the registration number of the aircraft that landed in Abuja packaged as Air Nigeria.

While waiting, I saw the number on another post so I did a small search.

The equipment is a Boeing 737-860 Max.

Registration Number ET-APL

Mode S Q4005C

Serial Number: 40965/4075

Age: 10 years 8 months.

First flight was 22nd June 2012 as Ethiopian Airlines aircraft.

Then it became Malawi Airlines on 16th February 2014.

It was re-leased to Ethiopian Airlines on 12th August 2015.

Then on 26th May 2023 it has Nigeria Air colours without changing ownership.

Status: Active.

Last Activity: 4 hours ago

Last known location: Abuja Nigeria.

Below is the plane’s activities in the last few days according to flight radar tracker.