Plans by two Nigerian carriers Air Peace and MedView Airlines to fly into the United States in this summer could intensify competition on the route dominated by American giant Delta Airlines.
The carriers are convinced that they could leverage on the huge Nigerian population residing and doing business in major American cities, including Houston,Texas; Washington; New York; New Jersey and Baltimore to drive traffic for their proposed flights.
Although bilateral approvals have been secured from the Federal Government and the United States, the airlines are putting finishing touches to other regulatory approvals needed for the flight.
Investigations revealed that the carriers are encouraged to begin US flights as part of fulfilling the reciprocity clause in the Open Skies Agreement Nigeria signed with the US over a decade ago.
Though, Bellview Airlines, Air Nigeria and Arik Air were granted approval to fly into the US since 2009, only Arik Air accomplished the feat before it discontinued operations in 2016.
Bellview and Air Nigeria did not make it to the US before they shut down a few years ago.
Investigations revealed that issues bordering on economic recession and the inability to repatriate ticket sales out of Nigeria forced an American Carrier: United Airlines, to pull out of Nigeria in 2016. These have cleared the way for Delta Airlines as the lone carrier on the route.
MedView Airlines Chief Executive Officer, Muneer Bankole, said the airline is set to take the US market by the storm.
He said the airline has evolved strategies to spike competition on the route by engaging the big players in the game.
Bankole said: ”By summer of 2018, we are going to hit the US skies in our expansion plan into the US.
“We are putting strategies in place. We have acquired the right aircraft to facilitate the operations. We are working on our marketing to ensure that we hit the ground running.
“With other intercontinental routes we have started operations into, we are sure flights into the US will offer Nigerian passengers the right deal.”
He continued: “We relieve ourselves of making noise ahead of plan, we want to give you surprises that is what makes the difference between Med-View and other airlines.”
”So, we encourage our marketers to do more, we are lucky that we are stable, so we will continue to run it when the summer starts. So, what I’m telling you is that come July, it is going to hit the sky.
Air Peace Corporate Communications Manager, Chris Iwarah said the airline had already trained some pilots ahead of its international operations.
Iwarah said Air Peace had been designated by the Federal Government to fly into Atlanta, adding that the airline would be acquiring more aircraft, including some B777s to beef up its rapidly growing fleet.
Iwarah noted that Air Peace would deploy its B777 aircraft to service its long-haul routes, stressing that no Nigerian airline had ever used a B777 aircraft.
Source: thenationonlineng.net
