Arik Carries 8m Passengers, Acquires 23 Planes

Nigeria’s largest airline, Arik Air, has disclosed that in five years, it has flown eight million passengers and acquired 23 aircraft.

At a press conference on Monday, the Managing Director of Arik Air, Mr. Chris Ndulue, while marking the airline’s fifth anniversary, noted that tremendous progress have been made over the period.

“We started operation on 30 October, 2006 with four daily flights between Lagos and Abuja using three brand new Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft. We carried only 29,363 passengers by year end representing less than 1% of domestic market share.

“Presently, Arik Air has the largest fleet in Nigeria with 23 short, medium and long range aircraft. We have carried about 8 million passengers in five years of operation. We now control over 40% of the total domestic market share and we do over 120 daily flights from out two hubs in Lagos and Abuja,” Ndulue said.

He added: “We serve 21 destinations across Nigeria, six in West Africa (Cotonou, Accra, Monrovia, Freetown, Banjul, Dakar), one South Africa (Johannesburg), one in Europe (London Heathrow), one in America (New York JFK). We serve 44 routes across the world.”

Ndulue added that Arik Air has created over 2000 jobs for Nigerians and connected the entire nation- instead of cherry picking routes.

“We have made it possible to connect from many key cities in the country direct to Lagos and Abuja. This network has stimulated the Nigerian economy as Nigerians can now travel safely and comfortably on brand new aircraft at competitive prices. We are not just building an airline or the aviation sector- we want to contribute to the growth of the nation,” he said.

Asked how much has been invested in the business in the last five years, including the airline’s debt profile, Ndulue said such information are not disclosed.

—Simon Ateba