Medview Airlines is to commence
commercial flights operations on the
Lagos-London from November this
year, Managing Director of the
airline, Muneer Bankole, said while
speaking with aviation
correspondents in Lagos on Tuesday.
He disclosed that the airline had
secured approval from the British
authorities to service the route.
“Presently, we only have British
Airways and Virgin Nigeria coming
into Nigeria.
“We will make our air tickets to
London cheaper without
compromising the safety of our
passengers who are flying the route.
“Also, among our destination
countries are Jedda and Dubai. We
have got approval to service the
Lisbon Airport. It was given to us by
the government of Portugal.”
Bankole said that his airline would
make use of its newly acquired
Boeing 767-300 aircraft, leased
recently to service the London
route.
The managing director said that the
aircraft would be operating twice a
week to London from Lagos and
Abuja.
He said the total seat capacity of the
aircraft was 221, with 30 business
class seats to meet yearnings of
customers.
NAN reports that the Federal
Government had earlier designated
the airline to begin operations into
10 new international routes.
The government’s approval was
contained in a letter addressed to
the airline, dated April 23, 2015 by
the Federal Ministry of Aviation.
The routes approved for the airline
are Lagos-London, Lagos-Lisbon;
Lagos-Douala and Lagos-Kinshasa.
Others are Lagos-Abidjan; Lagos-
Bamako; Lagos-Monrovia; Lagos-
Conakry and Lagos-Freetown.
Bankole, however, decried the way
foreign airlines were “accessing
Nigeria’s point of entry.
“We have opened the point of
entries into our airports too wide
for foreign airlines and that is why
the local airlines are dying slowly.
“We make them to feel they are
everything in our country but
Nigerian airlines find it difficult to
access their countries easily.
“I mentioned it earlier that I was in
Saudi-Arabia while I had to pay extra
charges to the airline before I got to
my destination, no Nigerian airline
gets paid here for that.
“Rather, foreign airlines are telling
the government to abolish some
commercial charges they are paying
to aviation agencies.
“However, we believe that with the
new government on ground, it will
do something reasonable to
resuscitate our industry to the next
level,” Bankole said.
Source: upshotreports.com/upshot/medview-airlines-begins-flight-operations-on-lagos-london-route-in-november/