Arik Air has transported 19, 543, 951 passengers across all its networks between October 30, 2006 when it started operations and September 2016 across.
The airline’s executive vice president, Mr. Chris Ndulue who stated this at a press conference held in Lagos yesterday to mark the 10th year anniversary of the airline also announced that staff strength had increased from 350 in 2006 to 2, 300 in 2016.
Besides, he said the airline ushered in a new chapter in Nigerian aviation history by beginning commercial operations using Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft adding that the carrier had since led a resurgence of Nigerian civil aviation by committing to being a quality airline operating to international safety and operational standard using new aircraft with modern technology and having high maintenance, safety and quality standards.
“Arik Air which started scheduled flights …with only three flights between Lagos and Abuja now operates an average of 110 daily flights across a network of 18 domestic, 10 regions and three international destinations including Johannesburg, London Heathrow and New York JFK.
“Ten years ago, Arik has delivered on its promises of operating the youngest fleet in West Africa with an average hull age of 7-8 years; creating employment opportunities, and partnering with top maintenance providers such as Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cityline and Samco Engineering under full “turn-key” maintenance service contracts from inception to date.
Arik is now the market leader and the largest carrier in the region in terms of number of aircraft, capacity deployed, network and number of flights operated,” he said.
Given Arik Air’s dominant position in the aviation market along with current and future and future planned capacity, Ndulue said “the airline has capabilities to take full advantage of the expected passenger traffic growth forecast for the region.
“In the coming years, we hope to maintain our market leadership and our growth strategy involves substantially increasing our fleet from 28 aircraft today to 52 aircraft by 2025. On route development, we are also looking at starting new routes,” said Ndulue.
