Air Nigeria

Etihad and Ethiopian plan services to Sao Paulo as Latin America-Asia market prepares to grow

Etihad Airways and Ethiopian Airlines intend to launch services to Sao Paulo, the economic heart of the rapidly growing Latin American market. While Sao Paulo is seeing increased capacity from a number of carriers, services from Etihad and Ethiopian are notable for the considerable transfer traffic they will have, including from Asia. Linking the high-growth economies of Asia with their Latin American counterparts has been alluring for many carriers, but distances and aircraft range limitations necessitate all services be one-stop.

Asia-Latin America's traditional, if small time, transfer hubs in North America and Europe have increasingly seen competition from the Middle East. That will be complemented in the next few years with hubs from Africa, first from East Africa and potentially later from West Africa.

Air Nigeria to resume long-haul network as West African aviation grows

Air Nigeria is resuming its long-haul network after services were cut during a period of restructuring, ownership transfer and re-branding three years ago. The privately held flag carrier, formerly known as Virgin Nigeria and briefly as Nigeria Eagle Airlines, will resume long-haul services in May-2012 to London Gatwick and Johannesburg with plans in the short-term to launch Rome and Paris services.

The Lagos-based carrier has had a false start, expecting last year to resume long-haul flights in Sep-2011, but plans this time are more concrete, with Air Nigeria loading schedules and fares. Its planned services will see notable competition, but like many routes in and out of Africa, are typically high-yielding. Air Nigeria’s forthcoming Lagos-London route is the latest in West Africa-Europe expansion, following notable capacity increases from Brussels Airlines.

Nigeria and Ghana driving West African aviation development

West Africa’s aviation industry is being led forward by Nigeria and Ghana. In Nigeria, the largest carrier, Arik Air, recently revealed itself as Boeing’s un-named B747-8 customer, while national carrier Air Nigeria is in the process of re-establishing its long-haul network. While the airlines are not without their problems, the market is growing and new entrants are appearing. In Ghana, the country is opening up to international carriers who are eager to increase their frequencies to the gold-producing country. Ghana itself is the site of one of Africa’s newest carrier, Starbow Airlines, and an impending base for pan-African LCC, Fly540.

Airbus predicted cities in these two countries, Accra and Lagos, will become “airline megacities” in the next 20 years, meaning they will handle 10,000 or more long-haul passengers a day. Accra and Lagos are two of just six** African cities tipped to become an “airline megacity”.

Arik Air orders two 747-8s to continue expansion as Nigeria's largest carrier

Arik Air on 06-Oct-2011 was identified as the carrier who anonymously purchased two Boeing 747-8 aircraft on 15-Jun-2011. The purchase injects life into the aircraft programme, which only has two other disclosed airline customers although Boeing has continuously said it expects the freighter variant to be far more successful than the passenger version. More important is the aircraft's affect on Nigerian aviation and cementing the position of Arik Air as the regional leader.

Arik Air says it intends to operate the B747-8s on its "key long-haul routes". Arik Air only currently operates to London Heathrow, New York JFK and Johannesburg. The carrier announced this week its intention to launch thrice weekly service to Abu Dhabi on 29-Nov-2011 with A340-500s. With London Heathrow being Nigeria's largest long-haul market, slot-constrained and facing more competition, the airport has very good chances of receiving Arik Air's B747-8 service.

Air Nigeria re-establishes long-haul routes

Air Nigeria is resuming long-haul operations after a nearly three-year hiatus, with A340-300 flights to London Gatwick commencing in Sep-2011. The carrier is also aiming to use its newly acquired A340-300 fleet to resume flights to Johannesburg and launch Washington Dulles with the latter designed to supplement its new codeshare service via Delta Air Lines to Atlanta and New York.

Virgin Atlantic confident of prospects despite big FY2009/10 loss

Having made a substantial profit of GBP60 million in 2008/09, one that put rival British Airways firmly in the shade, Virgin Atlantic had to report a loss of GBP132 million in 2009/10 – a loss equivalent to BA's, allowing for their comparative size. For the 12 months ended Feb-2010, Virgin reported an operating loss of GBP132 million, compared with a profit of GBP60 million the previous year as revenues fell by 8.6% to GBP2,537 million. This, despite airline operating costs reducing by 8%. The results were not directly influenced by cabin crew strikes at BA, which commenced in Apr-2010 but they could have been influenced indirectly, for example by passengers switching bookings in anticipation of a strike. If that was the case, the result is worse than it first appears.