Arik Air Begins Flight To Dubai, July

Arik Air has announced that
it would begin flight operations on the Lagos/Abuja and Dubai route from July 28, 2014.
Dubai is one of the business routes from Nigeria with over two hundred thousand (200,000) passengers travelling to that destination every year and with a potential growth of doubling the number in the next five years.
The Chief Executive Officer of Arik Air, Mr Michael Arumeni-Ikhide, made this known Tuesday and also launched the airline frequent flyer programme, otherwise known as the Arik Affinity Wings.
Mr Arumeni-Ikhide said Dubai operation is part of efforts by the airline to expand its reach into the middle East with a plan to take Nigerian passengers further with planned partnership with Emirates and Turkish Airlines.
Arumeni-Ikhide said the launch of flights by Arik Air into Dubai would make it become the first Nigerian carrier to offer services between Abuja and the United Arab Emirates.
According to him, the airline ventured into the middle East as part of strategies to consolidate on its international operations after five and half years of serving other international destinations.
He explained that Arik Air would offer competitive fare on the route to attract Nigerian passengers, adding that there is enough capacity for all carriers that operate in the Middle East routes.
Mr Arumeni-Ikhide said Arik was not worried over the seeming competition on the routes, as its team had understood why initial Nigerian airlines that ventured into the route failed.
The Chief Executive Officer, disclosed that the airline would collaborate with Emirates Airline for code share agreement and how to consolidate operations on the route which has enough capacity to acknowledge all airlines.
“Dubai is the fastest growing market from West Africa with Lagos-Dubai route alone achieving over 200,000 passengers in 2013, other West African states have also shown significant growth in the traffic to Dubai, with Nigeria leading the way,” he said.
According to him, it is therefore, only appropriate that a Nigerian carrier should serve this route for the benefit of the travelling populace. We envisage that the great potential on this route would drive Arik Air to increase capacity in the future and the cargo potentials on the route is also significant.