ARIK AIR

'Arik Air' is an airline based in Lagos, Nigeria operating a growing domestic network. Regional and international destinations are planned to be added. Its main base is Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.^[1].

Contents

History

Destinations

Africa

Fleet

External links

References

History

On 3 April 2006, Arik Air took over the former Nigeria Airways facilities in Lagos, some three years after liquidation and began reconstruction work. On 14 June 2006, Arik took delivery of the two new Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft to fly domestic routes throughout Nigeria and to the African continent from summer 2006, two former United Airlines Boeing 737-322 and three 50 seat Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft. On 30 October 2006 Arik began scheduled passenger flights with four flights between Lagos and Abuja using CRJ 900 aircraft. Flight operations began to Calabar on 15 November 2006 and services to Benin City and Enugu started on 7 January 2007.^[2]. The airline is wholly owned by Ojemai Investments
The Nigerian government set a deadline of April 30 2007 for all airlines operating in the country to re-capitalise or be grounded, in an effort to ensure better services and safety. The airline satisfied the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)’s criteria in terms of re-capitalization and was re-registered for operation.^[3]
Arik Air currently uses Aeropack software as their airline management system developed by Travel Technology Interactive.

Destinations

The initial domestic network was expected to cover the following cities: Abuja, Calabar, Enugu,Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt, and Yola. Preparations are also underway to launch West Coast flights to Accra and Dakar.
In August 2006, the Federal Ministry of Aviation granted Arik Air authorization to fly to Trinidad and Tobago and Amsterdam, London, Madrid in Europe. Furthermore, the airline has received traffic rights to Atlanta, Birmingham, Miami, and Houston in the United States. These international routes to the US, UK and Far East will be introduced by 2008.
The airline plans to serve 10 destinations in Nigeria and add three international routes in Africa. Long-haul routes to the Far East, United States and United Kingdom will be introduced later in 2007^[4]

Africa

★ Nigeria

★
★ Abuja (Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport )

★
★ Benin City (Benin Airport)

★
★ Calabar (Margaret Ekpo International Airport )

★
★ Enugu (Akanu Ibiam International Airport)

★
★ Kano (Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport)

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★ Lagos (Murtala Mohammed International Airport)

★
★ Port Harcourt (Port Harcourt International Airport)

Fleet

'Arik Air Fleet'^[5]

Aircraft	Total	Routes	Notes
Boeing 737-322	2	Domestic and Regional Routes	Built in 1990
Boeing 737-700	2	Domestic and Regional Routes[6]
Boeing 737-800	0	Domestic and Regional Routes	10 on order
Boeing 777-200LR	0	International (United States)	2 on order (delivery 2011)
Boeing 777-300ER	0	International (Europe, Asia)	3 on order (delivery 2011)
Boeing 787-9	0	International (London)	7 on order (delivery 2014)
Bombardier CRJ-200	3	Domestic and Regional Routes	Built in 2003
Bombardier CRJ-900	4	Domestic and Regional Routes
Bombardier Dash 8 Q400	0	Domestic Routes	4 on order
Bombardier Dash 8 Q300	3	Domestic Routes	leased from Denim Air
Hawker Executive Jets 800XP	2

On April 27, 2007, the airline made an order with Boeing for new Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 aircraft.^[7]. In the meantime, Arik Air is sourcing Airbus A330 and Airbus A340 aircraft to start service to Heathrow airport in August 2007.^[8].

External links

★ Arik Air

★ Excitement as Arik brand new aircraft arrive tomorrow

References

1. Directory: World Airlines
2. Arik Air website retrieved 4 February 2007
3. Nigeria Direct 2 May 2007
4. Airliner World, February 2007
5. Flight International 24-30 April 2007
6. Boeing
7. [1]
8. Airliner World June 2007