Air Peace, Ibom Air, others to Bbe honoured at Travellers Awards
Air Peace, Ibom Air and Green Africa Airways are among the indigenous airlines that would be honoured at the forthcoming Travelers Awards event that is billed to hold in Abuja on March 11, 2022. Mr. Ikechi Uko, the organiser of the award said that the company planned to honour airlines with the Young Fleet, Good Customer Services, Inflight Services, On time Performance and Spread of Destinations.
The statement hinted that the 2022 Travellers Award would highlight the expectations of travellers in Nigeria, stressing that the organisers are listening to the complaints and yearnings of travellers by incorporating these desires in selecting the 2022 winners.
He noted that delays and cancellations are big issues on the domestic scene while customer services and schedule integrity ranked high on most social media feedback reports.
Uko emphasised that many new airlines are expected to join the market, but only Green Africa and United Nigeria eventually joined the business out of the 17 under process.
The age of aircraft and the return of new air planes, he said became an issue when Air Peace brought brand new aircraft into the Nigerian airspace since the decline of Arik Air.
Out of the 15 Aviation Awards to be unveiled before March 11, 2022 at Abuja Jabamah, the youngest Fleet Award and the Destinations Award are the first sets to be released by the Organisers, he said.
The airline that gets the highest number of the awards, Uko said would emerge as the Nigerian Airline of the Year, pointing out that about 65 to 70 aircraft were on hand in 2021 to carry over six million passengers to over 20 active airports in Nigeria.
Air Peace and Ibom Air are now the contenders with one award apiece, he said.
The other winners of Ontime Performance, Inflight Services, and Customer Service would join the scramble for the Top Award that is airline of the year in 2021, according to the organisers.
Air Peace is the airline with the best domestic coverage in Nigeria. They fly to all the six geo-political zones of Nigeria to almost all the state capitals with airports.
Ibom Air is the airline with the youngest fleet in Nigeria. Ibom Air has a fleet size of seven aircraft with an average age of eight years, made up of five CRJ and two Airbus A220.
The second youngest fleet in Nigeria is Green Africa, one of the two new airlines in Nigeria. Green Africa has three ATR planes with the average age of nine years.
Arik Air once the biggest airline in West Africa launched its operation with brand new Boeing B737 Next Generation aircraft, but recently after it was taken into administration by the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), its fleet got depleted to 18 with 11 active aircraft made up of B737, A320 and Q400 with an average age of 13 years.
Air Peace is the only airline that has a brand new plane in Nigeria. They actually have five of them, the E2 from Embraer. It has 30 aircraft as at 21st of January 2022 of average of 18 years made of four Airbus A320, 10 Boeing B737, two Boeing B777, eight Embraer regional jet E145 and five brand new E195 E2 and one Dornier Do-328. But, it is about 20 planes that are currently in use in the airline.
United Nigeria is one of the new startup airlines in the country. It has five aircraft with an average age of 19 years made up one Airbus A320 and four Embraer E145 jets.
Azman with seven aircraft of average age of 22 years. Two of the aircraft are parked. The fleet is made up of one Airbus A340 and six Boeing B737. Max Air has five active aircraft of average age of 22 Years; three B737 and two Embraer 145.
Dana has seven aircraft made up of two B737 and four MD83 with two of them parked and one LearJet 45 at an average age of 25 years.
