Arik Air, Nigeria’s largest commercial carrier has condemned other domestic airlines in the country for complying with the ‘pay as you go’ mode of payment introduced by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) for terminal navigational charges.

The airline argued that the charges were illegal and not approved by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), so the other carriers were unprofessional in going back on the agreement reached by their association.

“We believe they (other carriers) have brought the demise of AON (Airline Operators of Nigeria) by their actions. A meeting was held, everybody agreed and they went back,” said Ararume Johnson, Chairman Arik Air at the weekend during the airline’s unveiling of its fuel depot at its headquarters in Lagos.

The airline operators last week Sunday agreed not to fulfil the demands of the airspace agency, but after the management agency threatened to withdraw its services from debtor airlines, other carriers, apart from Arik, immediately complied. The mandate by the agency affected Arik’s general domestic operations for a whole day as the airline was grounded and all its 120 local flights cancelled.

According to Mr. Johnson, a committee has been set up by the president to look into the issues surrounding the navigational charges, stressing that though the airline was encouraged by the presidency to make a “deposit” of N50 million with the airspace agency, it will only work by the stipulated principles of the civil aviation regulatory body.

“That committee is working and we are very sure that very soon the outcome of that committee will be made known,” he said.

“But one thing is clear, Arik is right; we will not operate illegally even if other people can do whatever is unprofessional, we will not do it; we will operate within the laws as demonstrated by the regulatory authority. NCAA is the final authority on aviation in this country and whatever they did not approve, we will not do so.” Commenting on the development, Chris Ndulue, executive vice president of the airline said that the new terminal navigational charge has to be approved by the NCAA as “specified in Section 30, subsection 2(p) of the Civil Aviation Act 2006.” Meanwhile, the airline’s boss said the that the carrier’s fuel storage facility is aimed at providing enhanced services for travellers, adding that with the development, the airline will get its Jet-A1 directly for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

“We believe that life does not have duplicate and we want to ensure that we give people the best services that they need which would make them to enjoy flying and not to endure flying,” he said. “There is a difference between enjoying flying and enduring it because people carry their hearts in their minds when flying.”

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5615465-146/we_were_betrayed_says_arik_.csp

They have become one for the most useless and unreliable airline to operate from UK to Naija. Never taking them again ,

some people come here and talk rubbish cos they manage to travel in dere life and they think they can just come on here and talk rubbish,imagine him sayin dere services from london to lagos is bad, how many times av u used them on dat root, i fly them every single time and with my friends they r d best, get a life

Someone Just Hit A Nerve,

@kokorunna,

It is unfortunate that you had a bad experience with Arik Air. I have used Arik Air and others in Europe and America. I can tell you that Arik Air is one of the best airline today.

Travelling direct from London to Nigeria, the best airline is Arik Air. BA and Virgin are unnecessarily over-priced. KLM, Air France, etc are not direct from London and they have too much stop-over inconveniences. Non-direct flights have more chances of lost baggage - too risky for me.

I think Arik Air will surely get better.

fly arik

Betrayed ke? Who is betraying who? With all the horror stories of customer experiences with Arik?

http://saharareporters.com/press-release/arik-air-2nd-response-mr-akaninyene-inyang%E2%80%99s-report-sahara-reporters

http://saharareporters.com/press-release/arik-air-response-mr-akaninyene-inyang%E2%80%99s-report-saharareporters


http://saharareporters.com/letter/more-customer-horror-stories-about-arik-airline

Betrayed ke? Is it not Arik that is betraying itself by embarrassing and maltreating paying customers?

I knew this was goin 2 happen, Steal our money take start business, God pass una,

beknown:

@kokorunna,

It is unfortunate that you had a bad experience with Arik Air. I have used Arik Air and others in Europe and America. I can tell you that Arik Air is one of the best airline today.

Travelling direct from London to Nigeria, the best airline is Arik Air. BA and Virgin are unnecessarily over-priced. KLM, Air France, etc are not direct from London and they have too much stop-over inconveniences. Non-direct flights have more chances of lost baggage - too risky for me.

I think Arik Air will surely get better.

it is true that Arik air is good enough but tht is not to say that they are very cheap compared to BA and virgin.
i flew arik to\from Naija and the ticket difference was not much.
i have to say that i was pleasantly surprised with their service.

I still dont think that they are yet at par with BA, air france, emirates (the best) or even virgin.
they are good though.

Arik is such a useless over rated and unreliable airline, managed by morons. I will never fly them again.

chelseabmw:

i will always use arik for better for worse

Am sure u are on Arik payrol to come up with that crap

Arik all the way , Wasted money on BA b4 I discovered ARIK. Give them a chance and they will get better.

to each man his own.
I will never fly Arik outside the shores of this country.
I say ,NEVER.
not even if i have a free ticket.
I have ample evidence that it is not worth it.
air travel is not to be endured (especially international flights)

Same here. Even if they give free first class ticket. They are useless airline to fly outside Nigeria. I have my evidence too.

Lennox13:

Same here. Even if they give free first class ticket. They are useless airline to fly outside Nigeria. I have my evidence too.

Let have ur evidence pls

I fly them from Abuja to Uk on Thursday last week. My experience and over 60 passengers were the same. It's a long story.

what happened to patriotism in this country? BA, Air France, Virgin Atlantic
cannot be like the home brew. Anyway most of you guys have changed nationalities.

sandee575:

what happened to patriotism in this country? BA, Air France, Virgin Atlantic
cannot be like the home brew. Anyway most of you guys have changed nationalities.

u are right. The reason I fly them was to patronise our country airline. But I will never do such again. Don't believe the hype. It's all gimmick, bad management, poor customer service and debt ridden airline

Can u imagine?? I foresee another Nigeria airline going bust before this time next year. It's a shame to see another bite the dust.

last time i flew arik, my heart was in ma mouth, why cause its simply owned by a nigerian , didnt want tem to use me to count scores, lool

Lennox13:

Can u imagine?? I foresee another Nigeria airline going bust before this time next year. It's a shame to see another bite the dust.

i dont blame you its the situation were are in this nation that is what make you loose hope on your fellow nigerians up arik air up aviation in nigeria

tunde1200:

i dont blame you its the situation were are in this nation that is what make you loose hope on your fellow nigerians up arik air up aviation in nigeria

There's no need talking. Fly them and tell us your experience. I bet u will be facing reality

Lennox13:

There's no need talking. Fly them and tell us your experience. I bet u will be facing reality

you see ee dont use that kind of nasty words on that airline like that i have flew them several times the service is ok and normal ecept you have anything against them.

Well any body is entitled to his or her opinion here,but love or hate ARIK AIR, they are the best air line out of naija today.As 4 Hamid O, PLEASE try only to make comments that you can defend if need be.

Obviously at this stage I had no choice but to settle into the flight. I was then given a menu and with a wine list. I was first served cold chicken pepper soup. The chicken was diced and you could see the ingredients settled at the bottom of the plate with clear water on top. I asked for it to be warmed and your kind and efficient hostess attempted to do that. For my main meal I asked for eba with okra. I swear to God who made me when the eba arrived I almost asked the captain to stop let me come down. I was served two pieces of eba both the size of a bazooka chewing gum (for those of who don’t know bazooka chewing gum-the eba could not have been more than the size of a Wrigley’s airwaves chewing gum),the meat was about the size of my thumb,2 pieces. And once again it was cold. I gave up at this stage and just asked to be given champagne. I was given a long list and when I ordered the reply was-“we don’t have that one”. You didn’t have any of the brands I chose. You had only one brand and I had to stick to it. Why has a list when you know you have no intention of serving what is on it?

crazy crazy


nigeria we hail thee

Its been a pleasure that our Nigerian Airline can be appreciated,to me Arik Air is still one of the best Airline in the shores of africa.And it can still be better.God bless the owners of Airk Air for providing food to thousands of people table and solving nigerians travel problems.Thank GOD for them.

Obviously at this stage I had no choice but to settle into the flight. I was then given a menu and with a wine list. I was first served cold chicken pepper soup. The chicken was diced and you could see the ingredients settled at the bottom of the plate with clear water on top. I asked for it to be warmed and your kind and efficient hostess attempted to do that. For my main meal I asked for eba with okra. I swear to God who made me when the eba arrived I almost asked the captain to stop let me come down. I was served two pieces of eba both the size of a bazooka chewing gum (for those of who don’t know bazooka chewing gum-the eba could not have been more than the size of a Wrigley’s airwaves chewing gum),the meat was about the size of my thumb,2 pieces. And once again it was cold. I gave up at this stage and just asked to be given champagne. I was given a long list and when I ordered the reply was-“we don’t have that one”. You didn’t have any of the brands I chose. You had only one brand and I had to stick to it. Why has a list when you know you have no intention of serving what is on it?

Some people will never stop amazing me for the reasons they give to discredit others. So because of a bowl of 'Eba' and Okra soup, you are calling us to stop flying Arik. So you will prefer to be served 20 bowls of 'Eba' and Okra soup on the flight as against flying safely to your destination. 'Onijekuje 'omo-okele'.