The carrier's optimism is based on the growth opportunity it sees within Nigeriaand Africa, potential which has also caught the eye of other carriers keen to deploy capacity in a region relatively unscathed by the financial crisis.
"Nigeria has not been insulated [from the crisis]," explains Arik Air International managing director Michael Arumemi-Ikhide, "It's a cash economy, so we haven't felt the exacerbated feeling like the credit-dependent economies, but we haven't been excluded from it."
He says Arik'sdomestic and regional operations have not seen any weakening and its first international service, linking flights to Lagos to London Heathrow, is performing ahead of its expectations.
Arik began London flights in December, launching an ambitious international development plan which will see it add flights to Johannesburg and New York JFK flights in the second and third quarters respectively and serve 11 international points within five years. The new routes will come on line when it takes its second and third of three Airbus A340-500s,sourced opportunistically by taking over a former Kingfisher Airlines order last year. Arik is also looking to lease two A330s and is again linked to Kingfisher, which is looking to lease out two A330s.
"We are still going ahead with our growth," says Arumemi-Ikhide. "The opportunity is very different from what is out there [today]. In Nigeria you have a position where the passengers are under-served, which is different from say the transatlantic market where there is overcapacity. It is a perfect scenario for growth."
The potential has not escaped the attention of other carriers, notably from the Middle East where many have been ramping up their presence. In Nigeria alone, Emirates doubled its Lagos service to twice-daily in February Qatar Airways is increasing to daily and deploying larger A340s on its Lagos flights, while Etihad is planning to add both Lagos and Abuja this year.
"Africa is very important for us," says Emirates senior vice-president for Africa, Salem Obaidalla. While noting Africa is not untouched by the financial crisis, he says: "We are starting to see some recovery and improvement in the bookings."
Increased Middle East carrier competition, aided by the granting of new fifth and sixth freedom rights, was cited by Virgin Nigeria as one of the factors in its decision to suspend its long-haul operations earlier this year. It had been operating on the Lagos-London Gatwick route, but will focus on domestic and regional routes until it can secure more modern long-haul aircraft to enable it to better compete at the front end.
