Nigeria Content Online

The Federal
Government has approved Arik Air as one of Nigeria’s private airlines
permitted to fly direct from Abuja to Istanbul starting from June this
year.

The Minister of
Aviation, Fidelia Njeze, said while speaking during President Goodluck
Jonathan’s meeting with the organized private sector (OPS) in Istanbul
that this follows a new negotiation on the existing Bilateral Air
Services Agreement (BASA) signed between Nigeria and the Republic of
Turkey. Mrs. Njeze said, “By June this year to be precise, Nigeria’s
side of the BASA would come into play. Good enough, Arik is now
collaborating with Turkish Airline in that aspect and by June, Arik
will start flying from Nigeria to Turkey and that would now fulfil the
Nigerian aspect of the BASA”. Prior to this new arrangement, Turkey was
the only beneficiary of the BASA arrangement with Turkish Airline
operating flights operations into the Murtala Mohammed International
Airport (MMIA), Lagos, at least three times in a week. Speaking further
on the government’s plans to remodel and build five terminal buildings,
at major international airports in the country, the Aviation minister
said, “we have done quite a lot in trying to improve on the ambiance,
that is the comfort. The ambiance is what the passengers feel and that
is what will engender confidence in the safety and critical equipment
we have put in place.” She noted that, “Nobody travels by sea or by
road from country to country it is by air and investors coming in, it
is what they see at the airports that will actually give them
confidence to invest in a particular country. And that is why
government is conscious of it, that we need to transform our airports,”
Mrs. Njeze said. She further emphasized that government cannot isolate
airport infrastructure development “from our Vision 2020 aspiration.
The need to transform our airports to me is key in our Vision 2020
aspiration. We must transform our airports because that will help
investors to really come and invest in the country”.

The Chairman of Arik Air, John Arumemi-Johnson, who was part of the
private sector delegation, in a chat with newsmen in Istanbul said he
was elated that Airline was selected to fly the Istanbul route and
assured Nigerians of the airline’s competence to deliver on its
objectives. Thanking Mr. Jonathan for approving the airline for the
operations, the Arik boss pledged his commitments to continue to
contribute his own quota to the overall development of the aviation
sector.