Independent Nigerian carrier Arik Air is set to expand its network to the Turkish city of Istanbul after the Federal Government approved an application for traffic rights on the Abuja – Istanbul Ataturk route. The airline expects to launch services in the summer but has yet to confirm its proposed operational plans. It currently co-operates with Turkish Airlines between the two destinations providing domestic feed to THY’s four-times weekly service to Lagos’ Murtala Mohhammed International Airport. In the year ending November 2010, just under 25,000 O&D travellers made use of the route.

Meanwhile, a senior executive of the airline has confirmed that Abidjan, Bamako, Kinshasa, Luanda and Ouagadougou are all destinations under future consideration, although growth will not be limited to the continent with medium- and long-haul connections to Abu Dhabi, Houston and Jeddah are also possible.

Looking at the three latter markets in more detail, there is no direct competition on any of these routes from Abuja and Lagos, yet there are large traffic flows from Nigeria into both the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (223,817 in the year up to November 2010) and the United States (300,020).

The activity to the UAE is dominated by the Lagos – Dubai route (95 per cent) with Emirates Airline offering direct flights. With strong competition already to Dubai, it is sensible for Arik to look at Abu Dhabi as its first Middle Eastern market especially given the potential for onward links through the expanding Etihad Airways network there.

In the US, Houston is the third largest market from Nigeria yet there currently is no direct flight. The leading market, New York, is already served by Arik Air and the number two, Atlanta, is linked by Delta Air Lines. Passengers from Lagos generally connect via this Delta flight or KLM in Amsterdam, while from Abuja most travel via the European hubs of Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Almost 20,000 O&D passengers travelled between Lagos and Houston in the year ending November 2010 with the strong oil industry links a major reason behind the demand.

The proposed link to Jeddah has a huge potential even though just over 12,000 O&D passengers travelled there from the two Nigerian airports. Official IATA figures show that just 40,604 travelled between the two countries, but in reality this figure will be considerably higher as it does not include the large amount of Hajj traffic flown on charter services, a market that can bring a very high yield to airlines flying into the country.

Source: IATA BSP (December 2009 – November 2010)

Arik Air currently offers flights to 25 destinations in Nigeria, around Africa and across the rest of the world. From Lagos it serves 19 cities with 229 weekly departures and from Abuja it flies 133 weekly services to 15 airports.