Air Nigeria to Add Flights to London

Over two years since Air Nigeria abandoned its long-haul activities to focus on its regional African network, the carrier has announced it will resurrect links to the UK with a new daily Lagos – London Gatwick connection from September 1. The airline is classified as the national carrier of Nigeria and was previously known as Nigerian Eagle Airlines, having been originally established as Virgin Nigeria in September 2004.

The carrier launched flights between Lagos and London Heathrow in June 2005 using an Airbus A340-300 acquired from its 49 per cent shareholder Virgin Atlantic Airways, with Johannesburg also being added to its network in the subsequent years. However, in August 2008 Virgin announced plans to sell its shareholding in the carrier and after reviewing its operations decided to remove the Virgin branding and suspend medium- and long-haul flights the following year. In September 2009 the business took up the name Nigerian Eagle Airlines, with the current branding being introduced from June 2010.

Air Nigeria currently operates domestic and regional flights to 15 locations in Nigeria and in the West and Central African region. From its operational base at Lagos Murtala Mohammed Airport, it operates to Benin City, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Abuja, Kano and Sokoto in Nigeria and to the overseas destinations of Brazzaville, Accra, Douala, Dakar, Monrovia, Cotonou, Banjul, Libreville and Abidjan. It has plans to extend its network to more African destinations and in to Europe, Asia and America and the London growth is its first step to achieving this.

As the table above illustrates, the United Kingdom is by far the largest O&D market in Europe for travellers flying in and out of Nigeria. An estimated 785,000 people flew between the two countries, equating for 61.0 per cent of the total market of 1.28 million passengers. But, Air Nigeria will face intense competition with British Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways and fellow Nigerian carrier Arik Air already operating daily flights between Lagos and London, offering over 6,000 seats per week. These flights all terminate at London Heathrow and Air Nigeria will be the sole airline to serve Gatwick Airport, to the south of the capital.

As the table above shows, an estimated 513,000 O&D passengers travelled between Lagos Murtala Mohammed and London Heathrow in the past year. Virgin Atlantic Airways is the largest carrier by demand, although Arik Air has seen its share of the market increase over the past year. There is also vast differences in each carrier’s yield with British Airways’ average fares almost double that of Virgin Atlantic, which itself is almost double what Arik Air’s passengers are paying. This clearly shows the different market segments that the three airlines are attracting.

The new flight will further strengthen the links between the financial and economic centres of the UK and Nigeria. The UK is one of the largest investors in Nigeria with cumulative investment of several billion pounds by Shell, BG and Centrica in the oil and gas sector. There is also a large Nigerian community based in the UK and the extra capacity between the two countries will interest both business travellers and passengers visiting friends and family. Air Nigeria is to acquire an A340-300 for the new link which will depart Lagos at 14:10 and arrive in London at 20:10. It will then depart the UK at 22:30 arriving back in Nigeria 04:30 the following morning.

“It is great to welcome Air Nigeria and reconnect London Gatwick with Lagos. The UK has a large Nigerian community and there are strong trade and investment ties between the two countries so it is important that we maintain good air transport connections,” said Guy Stephenson, Commercial Director, Gatwick Airport. “Around 600,000 passengers travel to Nigeria from London and the South East each year so we expect a good take up on this route from Gatwick, especially given the airport has the quickest and most direct link into central London and we are investing £1 billion to improve our passenger services and airport facilities.”

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