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Arik builds mini-hub to connect West/Central Africa destinations

By BusinessNews Staff on April 12, 2014

To expand its operations to French speaking West and Central African destinations, one of Nigeria’s major carriers Arik Air, has established a mini hub in Cotonou, the capital of Benin Republic, which is a 15- minute flight from Nigeria’s bustling and economic nerve centre, Lagos.

Arik, which is the largest airline in the West and Central Africa sub regions, plans to airlift businessmen and women who regularly travel through the West Coast and others, thus bridging the gaps created long ago when air travellers from one West or Central African country had to travel to Europe to connect flights to another country in the sub regions.

It also plans to connect potential customers from these neighbouring countries to Lagos, which is its major operational hub and from Lagos to other international destinations in the world.

Associate Vice President, Global Sales and Distribution, Trevor Henry said in the last two years there had been increasing demand to open up direct air services between Nigeria and Benin to ease movements, as land transport has become very difficult due to poor state of the roads.
Henry explained that besides taking passengers from Lagos to Cotonou, Arik Air also has the permit to fly from Benin Republic to Doula, Cameroon, which he said would go a long way in assisting the airline in its quest to grow its market share and the airline hopes to connect more destinations from Cotonou in the nearest possible time.

“A lot of people want to go into Cotonou from Lagos and vice versa by air and we had to give them what they want,” he said.
Inaugural flight to usher in the new route took place on Monday as the airline’s flight W3 557 left the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos to Cotonou and connected Doula in Cameroon.
“We were the first to develop that route but left it over a year ago. But with more demand we had to go back. So what we do now is that we do a daily service; we can take passengers from Nigeria to Benin Republic, and in Cotonou we can also fly out to Douala in Cameroon and do the same return trip Douala-Cotonou-Lagos by evening of the same day,” Henry explained.
An Indian businessman, Siddharth Bale who was on the flight said it was one of the best things that had happened to business relationship between the two countries.

“You can see that the aircraft was almost full with all the seats taken up. A lot of people prefer the 15 minutes flight by air from Lagos to Cotonou than the discomfort of going by road. Time is money,” he said.

A Nigerian bilingual (speaking English and French) and who described himself as a Human Resource expert, Olusola Arowolusoye expressed great delight with the fact that he could go in and out of the two countries by air.

“I do a lot of business shuttling Benin Republic and Nigeria as a human resource expert. I am so happy to know I can have a meeting this afternoon in Cotonou and I could come in, do my work, and catch the returning flight from Cotonou in the evening back to Lagos. I am convinced this will do a lot of good to trade and business relationship between Nigeria and Benin Republic,” he enthused.

Arik Air said through the new route it plans to ease air travellers’ movement within the West and Central African sub-regions using the Lagos international airport as a hub, Henry disclosed.
Henry added: “We have created a network and now passengers can buy direct air tickets to London, South Africa and New York from any of these countries, Cameroon, Benin Republic, Togo, and Senegal, and we can fly them to these destinations out of Lagos as a hub.”

He said Arik Air was proud to assist Nigeria to economically fulfil its ambition of serving as a hub of travellers within the West African sub-region because passengers could now come in with Arik Air flights from any of its neighbouring countries and then fly out overseas out of Nigeria as is done in Kenya, Ethiopia, Dubai, Qatar, and other European countries.

[This Day]

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