Arik price cuts hurt British Airways and Virgin Atlantic
• VNA’s new aircraft for inaugural flight Tuesday
By Yemi Adebowale, 07.18.2009

Saturday, July 18, 2009
The price war initiated by Arik Air for economy class passengers travelling from Lagos to London, is constituting a big threat to the dominance of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways on the lucrative international route.
Arik commenced non-stop daily flights from Lagos to London Heathrow Airport late last year, and immediately slashed the prices of economy and premium class tickets thus hurting BA and VAA, which hitherto flew the bulk of London terminating passengers.

As Arik expands its flight destinations, rival local airline Virgin Nigeria Airways is celebrating the arrival, late Thursday, of its second brand new Embraer aircraft, which is scheduled to make its inaugural flight to Abuja next week Tuesday.

According to a review undertaken by Financial Derivatives Company (FDC), a Lagos-based economic research firm and presented at the July Executive Breakfast Meeting of the Lagos Business School, “the price war on the route initiated by Arik is hurting BA and Virgin Atlantic’s economy passengers and London terminating traffic.”

The review, a comprehensive summary of global economic and business indicators and events for the month of June and presented by Bismack Rewane, FDC’s managing director, indicated that BA has started an aggressive response to the Arik threat.

“BA is responding aggressively in the corporate market. It is offering corporate discounts in the premium classes (Business and First Class cabins) and on select routes. It has intensified customer service initiatives and interface,” the review noted.

Further investigation by THISDAY revealed that the Arik threat is more pronounced in the battle for budget travellers (Economy Class passengers), where the local airline charges N174,000 (about $1,160 – taxes inclusive) for a return ticket to London and has become a major attraction.

On the contrary, BA’s cheapest Economy Class return ticket to London is $1,460 while VAA’s cost $1,432.

Arik’s cheapest Busi-ness Class return ticket to London is N500,000, about $3,333. To fly BA, it cost $4,825 while VAA charges $3,799.

Arik uses a brand new Airbus A340-500 long-range aircraft on the Lagos- London route offering Business Class passengers flat beds, individual television monitors, along with other in-flight entertainment comparable to any airline in the world.

However, Arik’s attempt to lure passengers has not been that pronounced in the battle for premium class passengers on the route despite its low fares.

For most premium class passengers to London, analyst said their preferred choice remains BA and VAA owing to a number of factors, including safety and their track records, loyalty programmes, reliability and the status symbol. As a result, both airlines have been able to ward off Arik’s challenge in this area.

This notwithstanding, the report by FDC noted that premium traffic in general on the international routes is shrinking, especially in the First Class cabin.

This, it attributed to factors such as exchange rate adjustment, declining consumer income and corporate expense control. Declining premium traffic has been a big blow to BA’s bottom line.

According to the review, BA recently announced that it would ground aircraft, slash available seats and postpone delivery of its A380 Airbus.

“BA, like all others airlines, is facing a recession-driven decline in passengers. In June, it carried 2.93 million passengers. This is 5 per cent less than June 2008.

“It has cut summer capacity by 3.5 per cent and 5 per cent in October. The increasing capacity of most routes and falling purchasing power are driving down yields,” said the review.

In addition, lower fares to London from Lagos (via Rabat) offered by Royal Air Maroc has also become a further threat to the dominance of BA and VAA on the route.

The review noted: “The $250 London ticket by Royal Air Maroc is receiving huge patronage.

“The stop over in Casablanca is considered by budget travellers a dream come true.”

The review further revealed that Arik has also become a threat to South African Airways on the Lagos-Johannesburg route.

Arik’s lowest Economy Class return ticket to Johannesburg costs just N93,500 – all taxes inclusive. It charges N458,000 for the lowest Business Class return ticket.

SAA on the other hand charges between N130,000 and N160,000 for Economy Class tickets and N500,000 to N600,000 for Business Class.

“Arik’s price cut and daily frequency to J’burg is a blow to SAA. This has forced SAA to respond with a further price cut and increased its frequency to five a week. There is a lot of red ink on the J’burg route,” said the review.

On the domestic route, the review revealed that “the price and capacity war is continuing between VNA, Arik & Aero Contractors. However, VNA’s new management team has been able to stay focused and the airline continues to dominate the Abuja, Accra, Abidjan & Port Harcourt traffic.

“It continues to outflank competitors in regional markets. VNA now controls 40 percent of Accra–Lagos traffic, 18 percent of the Lagos–Abuja market.”

VNA is expected to remain strong on domestic and regional routes with the arrival of a new Embraer aircraft and the return of one of its Boeing 737 aircraft from maintenance.

I have not flown this airline but I am gonna give it a try next time I travel home.

A friend here told me their ticket to naija goes for as low as £460 from London.

I still do not get the reason why BA and VAA will be chaging us the same amount as those who travel to Australia, a 24 hour flight.

We are better of flying Arik at least the money remains in Naija assuming the services are as good as they are said to be.

Have you tried Arik before? tell us your experience!

NB: I do not work for Arik

Arik is a good airline, I have never flown with them but my mum has and she is happy that she has a viable alternative to BA which she had hitherto flown with.

The only thing that lets them down is that they fly into and out of Heathrow TN2. This is definitely the worst of all the Heathrow terminals in terms of facilities etc. This should change by the end of the year as I believe it will be closed down so Arik will have to move.

That's cool! I also heard that someone who was a VAA loyal customer chnaged his mind after having a taste of Arik.

Arik is the best now!!from experience
Apart from the excellent service, you have 60kg baggage allowance ( two 30kg each) and 10kg hand luggage.
I have flown them 3 times and those flights have been my best flight ever, I have flown KLM and Air France in the past o!!

If you plan to fly, read this article below:

January 5, 2011
LucieA

I was shocked this afternoon at the sight I witnessed at the boarding gate for an Arik Air flight from Lagos, Nigeria. A very large group of exhausted, irritated, unkempt looking international passengers were trying to get information about their flight. They looked like they hadn’t slept in days. I was catching another flight at a different gate but I had to stop and ask them what had happened.

One tired gentleman told me that they had been at the airport since 9pm the night before, in order to catch their flight to South Africa at 11pm. However, when they came to the boarding gate, they were not allowed to enter the plane. They were not sure what the cause of the problem was and were not given any information by Arik staff. They were simply told not to leave the boarding gate area. So they sat down thinking the delay would last an hour or two and they would be on their way home. The hours dragged by.

Arik Air did not provide them with any answers, nor did they offer them hotel vouchers so they could wait comfortably for the next available flight, nor did they find them accommodation at the airport, nor did they provide meals for them or even snacks or drinking water. There is no toilet in the boarding gate area so there was no place for them to even go to the restroom or freshen up. They were not even given access to the lounge area so that they could rest. Only a few of them could find seats, the rest were sitting in their business suits on the floor.

This is how over 200 international passengers were held against their will without information, without assistance, without even food or water for more than 15 hours! It should also be noted that these TWO HUNDRED PASSENGERS were international passengers, meaning they were in a foreign country so there was no option to go back to their homes and wait for their flight information. They had no home there and had been prevented from going home for reasons unknown to them.

It is required of every airline to provide current, up to date information to their passengers. When there is a delay that is not due to the fault of the passenger, arrangements are to be made such as hotel vouchers, meal tickets, beverages and especially access to complete bathrooms!!! These passengers are human beings – not cattle! Yet they were treated without due respect.

This is not the first time Arik Air has behaved in a criminal matter. Many friends and associates have recounted stories of abuse at the hands of Arik Air. One business partner had his wallet taken from his seat pocket while he slept and $2,000 removed from it by an Arik staffer. He was the lone passenger in his row with an empty row both in front of him and behind him. The only one that could have bent over him while sleeping and been unnoticed would be the flight staff. A sister company of ours sent a team on retreat and when they arrived at their destination, the luggage for the entire flight had been left behind at the airport and there was no announcement made on board the plane before takeoff. But how can an airline leave all of the luggage on the tarmac and not load it before taking off?? That is incredulous! I believe if an inquiry is made, many more grievances, even worse than these, will be discovered.

While I was discussing with the man, an Arik staff appeared and announced the flight was now running and would be taking the TWO HUNDRED PASSENGERS to their destination. When prodded for the reason for the delay, the staffer reluctantly informed them that the delay was a lack of fuel in the plane!

This is outrageous and completely unacceptable. They have abused their position as an airline and their directors, managers and staff are not fit to run something so sensitive as an airline. We place our lives in the hands of airlines every day, trusting them to carry us safely from one location to another with our lives, our luggage and our decency in tact. Arik Air violates all of these trusts. Serious action should be taken to prevent our citizens from finding themselves trapped and abused at the hands of Arik Air.

agabaI23:

I have not flown this airline but I am gonna give it a try next time I travel home.
A friend here told me their ticket to naija goes for as low as £460 from London.

I still do not get the reason why BA and VAA will be chaging us the same amount as those who travel to Australia, a 24 hour flight.

We are better of flying Arik at least the money remains in Naija assuming the services are as good as they are said to be.

Have you tried Arik before? tell us your experience!

NB: I do not work for Arik

There have been countless topics on Arik air in this section - most of them very very negative. You may want to read some of the topics from the link below.
http://www.google.com.ng/cse?cx=partner-pub-6465801557104924%3Abko28ysgdng&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=arik+air&sa=Search&siteurl=www.nairaland.com%2Fnigeria%2Ftopic-298770.0.html%23bot

Had a first taste from Lagos but it was not nice. Two hours delay, missed a connecting flight, an extra night, no cooling system. It was horrible. I will only use them as the last option.

I want to book a flight with arik,Please who has flown with arik airline recently from London to Lagos and what was the experience like?