By far the biggest operator in the Nigerian aviation industry, Arik has emerged to fill the vacuum created by the lack of a national carrier. Although privately-owned, Arik serves as the de facto national airline as it not only operates both local and international flights but is also used for national assignments such as transporting the Super Eagles and other sports entourages to events.
Yesterday, it was reported that Arik is in financial trouble and may be going bankrupt but in an emphatic denial, the airline said this false and malicious publication is the handiwork of fly-by-night social media sites. It added that they are trying to ride on the popularity and huge followership of Arik Air, to attract attention or relevance to their sites.
An Arik spokesman said: “These harbingers of bad news in their senseless sensationalism and quack journalism would stop at nothing including pulling down national institutions and icons, in order to achieve their narrow pecuniary interests and those of their desperate sponsors. Arik Air it is not deterred by this smear campaign as the airline has been steadily operating over 100 flights on a daily basis, which are being increased to 110 from the on-set of the winter season.
“We have already launched expansion into cities such as Abidjan, Monrovia, Cotonou and Douala which are being further increased to weekly frequencies from this week onwards and therefore find it ridiculous for anyone to suggest that the airline is going bankrupt. Our long haul international flights to London and Johannesburg continue to be operated on a daily basis without any issues along with New York JFK which is flown three times per week.”
In addition, the airline also denied reports of mass resignations of pilots and cabin crew, saying such stories are totally inaccurate. According to the company spokesman, Arik is not under any abnormal financial or operational difficulties and wishes to assure passengers of the high level of safety and customer service that it has been providing since inception in 2006.
“For the records, we have recently concluded a new deal with Lufthansa Technik who will be maintaining our fleet of 28 airplanes up until 2019. In addition, we are taking delivery of two brand new Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft this winter season to further expand our domestic services and launch new services within Africa to cities such as Libreville.
“We are Nigeria’s and West Africa’s largest carrier in terms of aircraft fleet, revenue generation passenger numbers, as well as offering the highest number of weekly flights out of Lagos, Abuja and Accra airports. Thus we are also contributing to the economic growth of Nigeria, and our neighbouring countries like Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Cameroon, Benin and other West African Countries," the spokesman added.
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