Arik Air Nigeria

Arik Air of Nigeria has officially revealed on its website, its international long haul route planning strategy for the next 3 years which has revealed some interesting in-sight which is as follows:

YUL - to be flown nonstop from LOS.

JFK - to be flown within 6 months time nonstop from LOS.

IAH - to be flown nonstop from LOS.

PEK - to be flown either nonstop or via DXB.

BOM - to be flown either nonstop or via DXB.

BRU/CDG/FRA - to be each flown nonstop from LOS.

GRU - to be flown nonstop from LOS.

Comments:

Arik Air would be better off launching routes which it can offer a monopoly flight service on which are guaranteed to see high loads at reasonable yields. This includes LOS-IAD, LOS-IAH, LOS-NYC, LOS-JED and LOS-CAN nonstop. One hopes that if YUL is launched it is done so with a SPA with AC on the YUL-YYZ/YOW/YVR/YYC-YUL sectors otherwise there is no point in flying to YUL as the O&D market size especially out of YUL is one fifth of YYZ-LOS! FYI, Arik Air has on order from Boeing 5 B 77Ws + 9 B 789s + 3 B 739ERs.